


Park Rangers and Other Complications

by Bhujerban



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Archaeologist!Zelda, F/M, ParkRanger!Link, Scientist!Zelda, Women in science!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:21:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 34,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24447244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bhujerban/pseuds/Bhujerban
Summary: ‘She glances at the park ranger again.Link, his nametag reads. His skin is tanned from the sun and a charming splattering of freckles dust his high cheekbones.A wild pretty boy, she concludes. Not one who could understand the scientific importance of the work they were doing here.’---When the field season started, archaeology graduate student Zelda expected the regular challenges associated with field work: clueless undergraduates, rainy weather, and long hours at the site. What she didn’t expect was to meet Link, the quiet park ranger who shows her that there can be more to life than research.BoTW ZeLink Modern AU.
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 168
Kudos: 443





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi reader! This is my first foray into fanfiction in years, so I am grateful to you for being here.
> 
> I read somewhere about how BoTW Zelda would make an excellent archaeologist and I wanted to explore what a ZeLink dynamic would be like in that world. This fic is a bit self-indulgent, as I am actually an archaeologist irl. Most (if not all) of the stories that Zelda tells about field work either come from my own experiences or those of my friends and colleagues. I told my housemate that I was worried that the Venn diagram of people who read ZeLink fanfiction and are archaeologists might just include me, but I still wanted to write this!
> 
> Enough from me, I hope you enjoy this story and I would love to hear your feedback!

Zelda needs a drink. Or a nap. Maybe a drink and then a nap. _No_. Drinking and napping are not allowed at dig sites. Especially during the first few weeks when everything is getting started. Since Zelda is one of the more senior graduate students at the site, she was tasked with a bunch of jobs in the hectic first week. Between opening up the site, setting up the total station, and exposing the work from the previous season, there was little room to breathe. The second week is going a little better, but some of the undergraduate volunteers are extremely inexperienced and keep calling her over to ask if the random rocks they find are artifacts or bones.

They’re neither. They’re just rocks.

Zelda tries to be patient because she remembers what it felt like to be at her first excavation; how everything was shiny and new and so, so exciting. But the constant barrage of questions about Leviathans and other cryptids from the undergraduates confound her and she’s not entirely sure what they think they’re excavating at the site.

The ancient Shiekah site located in Central Hyrule National Park is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the country. Zelda’s advisor, Dr. Purah, has been working there for the last fifteen years trying to understand the sudden collapse of the impressive ancient Sheikah society of the past. Working at such a well-known site is both a blessing and a curse. It is, of course, quite a privilege to have the opportunity to study ancient Shiekah technology at one of the largest and most meticulously documented sites in the world. On the other hand, famous excavations attract curious scholars from across the country and someone has to show the visitors around.

Usually Symin, Purah’s most senior graduate student, is the one that is tasked with accompanying visiting scholars. But Symin is defending his dissertation next semester, so he’s gleefully informed Zelda and the other graduate students that since it’s his last summer as Purah’s graduate slave – _student_ –he’s taking a step back from all non-dissertation related work. So scholarly site tour duties _and_ undergraduate supervision fall on Zelda’s shoulders. It’s not that Zelda minds working with the visiting scholars, she loves the site and certainly knows a lot about it, having spent the last four summers in the field as Purah’s graduate student, but she really just wants to focus on her own dissertation research.

Rotana, a Gerudo scholar visiting from Vah Naboris University, is at the site to learn how to set up the excavation for her new site at the Seven Heroines. Rotana had arrived over the weekend and was quite starstruck at meeting Purah for the first time. Zelda can’t blame her.

Working with Purah is both intimidating and thrilling. As the first woman to head the Institute of Hylian Archaeology and the first woman archaeologist to be inducted into the Royal Academy of Science, Purah cuts an intimidating figure and casts a long shadow. As a researcher and a woman in science, Zelda has always aspired to the academic heights achieved by her advisor and works hard to meet every exacting standard placed before her.

As such, Zelda wants to make sure that Rotana leaves the site with every bit of information she needs and with a good impression of the process and methods that they employ. She answers every one of Rotana’s questions with as much detail as possible and watches as the Gerudo scholar takes meticulous notes.

They’re in the middle of discussing how to properly document the finds as they are being excavated when Zelda hears a dejected sigh and a sniffle coming from one of the excavation squares. She excuses herself, leaving Rotana to finish her notes, and makes her way over.

There are a handful of excavators working in the squares, a mixture of undergraduate and graduate students. Zelda glances around a locates the source of the distressed noises. Paya, a young Shiekah woman, is crouched over her square, scratching awkwardly at the dirt in front of her.

Zelda walks over and crouches down next to her.

“Is everything okay?”

Paya startles with a squeak and drops her trowel. “Z-Zelda!”

Zelda gives her a comforting smile. “I just wanted to check in with you and see how you’re doing.”

Paya’s eyes dart away and her face flushes with embarrassment. “I-I don’t know.” She mumbles, picking up her trowel.

“What don’t you know?”

Paya fidgets with her trowel a little. “I just—I don’t know what I’m supposed to be d-doing. I-I don’t even know what I’m looking for!”

Zelda feels a rush of sympathy for the younger girl. Paya isn’t an archaeologist, but her grandmother had asked her great-aunt Purah to take her into the field this summer in an attempt to break her out of her shell. As a religious studies major, Paya has little experience in archaeology and her lack of knowledge seems only to increase her anxiety.

“Take a deep breath, Paya. It’ll be okay.” Zelda takes the trowel from her. “You just need to divide your square into four smaller squares and take it slowly.”

Paya just looks at her with her wide brown eyes, unsure.

Using Paya’s trowel, Zelda helps her divide her square and shows her how to gently but efficiently remove the dirt from the square. As they talk through the process, Paya’s shoulders relax and she becomes more comfortable with the work.

Eventually, Rotana calls for Zelda from across the site, so she takes a step away from Paya’s square.

“You can do this, Paya.” Zelda says.

Paya nods but looks uncertain. Zelda casts a look around, there are a few other graduate students working in squares near hers.

“Here Paya, if you have any questions, you can just ask Kilton and…”she trails off as Kilton turns to face them, a wide smile etched on his grey face. “Actually, why don’t you work with Jerrin.”

* * *

The visitor’s center is bustling with activity as tourists weave in and out. Link stands on his tiptoes as he looks around for signs of Mipha and the tour group he is supposed to lead later. It is difficult to see over the crush of people. With a sigh, he makes his way over to the main doors and plants himself against the wall and waits.

It’s been a busy morning for Link. With summer bearing down on them, the number of visitors stopping by Central Hyrule National Park are steadily increasing. As a park ranger, it means that Link’s duties were growing by the day. He had an early morning debrief with Chief Urbosa, wherein she informed him that there was a special tour group visiting the park today. The Bolson and Sons construction group is a particularly generous benefactor of the national parks program and had requested a specialized land-sea-air tour of the park. Link and the other rangers were tasked to lead the tour. Mipha is in charge of taking the group canoeing along the expansive river systems that threads through the park. Link is assigned the role of taking the visitors hiking through the park trails, while Revali will be taking them gliding to wrap up the trip.

Link grumbled a bit about the assignment, not particularly excited about babysitting a group of rich visitors and asked why Daruk couldn’t lead the land portion of the tour. Daruk laughed and, with a slap of his giant hand against Link’s shoulder, gleefully informed him that he was going to be checking trails in the backcountry for the next week. So, Link ends up here, in the crowded visitor’s center, daydreaming about waking up to the sound of chirping birds, clear blue skies, and lush green trees.

“Link!” A voice cuts into his daydream, “Link! Over here.” Mipha’s head is barely visible over the crowd as she weaves her way towards him.

“Mipha.” He greets her with a small smile.

“Hi!” Her warm smile grows. “I have them eating lunch now and they’re going to come back in half an hour or so. Did you already eat?”

Link nods and Mipha’s smile falters a little.

“Oh! Well,” She pulls a honeyed apple from her bag. “I made this last night and thought you might like it.”

He smiles again, giving her hand a grateful squeeze as he takes the honeyed apple. “Tell me about the group?” He bites into the apple.

She watches him eat for a moment. “It’s kind of weird.” Her eyes flicker along his jaw line, distracted by the movement. “I think it’s some kind of honeymoon trip?”

He pauses and looks at her with confusion.

“I know.” She pulls out her own lunch of fish skewers and begins munching thoughtfully. “There’s four of them, three Hylian men and a Gerudo woman. One of the men, Hudson, and the Gerudo woman, Rhondson, showed me pictures of their recent wedding and they keep talking about how this is the first trip of the rest of their lives.”

“And the others…?”

“Yeah, they’re just there.” Mipha laughs a little. “Bolson is the head of the management group and keeps reminding Hudson and Rhondson about the Bolson and Sons naming policy. It’s strange, going on a honeymoon and taking your boss.” She glances at Link briefly. “I wouldn’t want to do it.”

He shrugs before turning his attention to his honeyed apple again. The two of them fall into a companionable silence as the visitor’s center buzzes with life around them.

“Yoohoo, Miss Mipha.” They look up to see a man with balding grey hair and a neat beard making his way towards them. “And who is this studly young man?”

“Oh good! Bolson.” Mipha wipes her fingers on her napkin before packing away her lunch. “This is park ranger Link. He’s going to be leading your terrestrial tour for the next couple of days.”

Bolson’s eyes sparkle with excitement. “Exactly what we wanted! A young buck to lead us through the wild.”

Link nods, feeling a bit awkward, and gestures towards his apple core. “I’m just gonna…”

“Of course! But when you get back, there are some changes to the plan that we wanted to request.”

Link looks back in slight alarm, but Bolson only laughs. “Nothing serious, silly boy. We were just hoping to go see the Shiekah ruins archaeological site, out of professional interest!”

It turns out that Bolsons and Sons had been contracted to work on a mansion whose eccentric owner had requested a parlor with ancient Shiekah inspired elements, and so the construction moguls wanted to visit some ruins in person. Even though some parts of the site were open to the public, Link had always been hesitant to take tour groups there. The first time he’d gone by, Dr. Robbie, one of the principle investigators at the site had announced that Link did not look like a real ranger and needed to take off his shirt to show him his scars to prove his wilderness-worthiness. Link had avoided the site ever since that awkward encounter.

However, despite his reluctance, Mipha quietly convinces Link to take Bolson and Sons to the archaeological site, pointing out the importance of this trip going well.

“Besides,” Mipha lowers her voice. “They’ve brought in the students to work on the site for the summer, so I don’t think you’d have to deal with Robbie so much.”

Link gives her a wry look as she squeezes his shoulder.

“Maybe after the group leaves, we can go swimming on our day off. Like old times.” She whispers with a smile.

Link nods but doesn’t really know how else to respond. Mipha has been increasingly affectionate lately and, while he enjoys her company and values her as a friend, he is unsure how to respond to her advances.

Unfortunately for Link, Bolson seems to have picked up on that tension nearly immediately. As such, when they begin their trek on the trail leading to the excavation, Bolson accosts him.

“That Miss Mipha is really something isn’t she.” He accentuates his speech with flamboyant hand movements. “That lovely voice, those shimmering scales, and beautiful Zora eyes to melt a man’s heart.”

“This way please.” Link grits out. “Watch your step along here, sometimes the rocks are a bit loose.”

* * *

Zelda is kneeling in front of Jerrin’s excavation square and the two of them are trying to determine whether the change in sediment color and texture is enough to qualify a change in stratigraphic unit naming when she hears Purah’s shriek.

“Visitors!” Her voice carries across the site and there is a scramble as all the graduate students immediately drop what they were doing to touch their noses. _Not me, not me_ , the students all glance around at each other.

Zelda, who had been on her hands and knees examining the dirt, is easily the last graduate student to touch her nose. She glares at Jerrin. “I was helping you!”

Jerrin shrugs, only a little apologetic. “I’ll get it figured out. I just really don’t want to deal with a tour group. Maybe I can ask Robbie to take a look.” The tips of her ears redden.

Zelda sighs, brushing the dirt off her hands and stands. What a pain, she had hoped that she could spend the afternoon sketching the ancient furnace they’d uncovered the previous season and setting up her night photography equipment.

“Purah, I’ll talk to the group.” She offers with some reluctance and all the other grad students exhale in relief before turning back to their work.

Purah equips her with a folder of information and a laser pointer before all but shoving her out to the entrance of the site. She gives her a quick run-down of the group she’s expecting and concludes with a command. “Be your usual charming self, Zelda. Apparently, these visitors are a big deal. Snap snap!”

Plastering on a smile, Zelda straightens her ponytail, adjusts her headband and makes her way to the gate. As she approaches, she waves at the group gathered outside.

“Welcome to the site!” She assesses the group in front of her; three Hylian men and a Gerudo woman, led by a Hylian park ranger. “My name is Zelda and I’m an archaeologist working on these ruins. I heard that you are interested in the ancient Shiekah architecture.”

She unlatches the gate and ushers the group in. “You’re in luck because we’ve been working at this site for fifteen years now. We learn something new every year. In fact,” she leans in and lowers her voice conspiratorially, “we have been in discussion to expand our excavations into other areas.”

As the group titters with excitement, she hears a scoff and she turns her head to meet the blue-eyed gaze of the park ranger. She narrows her eyes and says, “Excuse me?”

He looks a little surprised at the challenge in her tone, but only shrugs at her, his lips quirked in a half smile. Zelda isn’t sure what to make of him, but she knows the park ranger type. They get so uppity about the wilderness and preserving the so-called natural landscapes that they are super resistant to the idea of more archaeological excavations taking place on park land. Never mind that humans have been living on these landscapes for thousands of years more than these parks have ever existed. Some sacrifices have to be made in the name of scientific discovery, after all!

She glances at the park ranger again. _Link_ , his nametag reads. Even his name sounds outdoorsy, like he spends most of his days climbing outside. He looks the part too. He isn’t particularly tall, but looks strong and, despite his lean frame, she could see the sturdiness of his shoulders under his ranger uniform. His dark blonde hair is long and tied back into a messy ponytail. His skin is tanned from the sun and a charming splattering of freckles dust his high cheekbones. _A wild pretty boy_ , she concludes. Not one who could understand the scientific importance of the work they were doing here.

She takes a breath to calm herself before turning to the group again. “Let’s make our way to the original excavation area. We can see where Dr. Purah and her first team began working and I can tell you all about what we have learned since we started.”

Despite her annoyance at being drawn away from her research, Zelda falls into the role of teacher-tour guide easily. She loves the work that they’re doing at the site and loves explaining it to an engaged audience. She pulls out photos from the folder that Purah handed to her, showing the group photos from the first test pit and uses her laser pointer to highlight where that original pit is on site. The group pays rapt attention as she tells them about the archaeological process and the various techniques involved in the research.

Her smile becomes more and more genuine as Bolson marvels at the architectural achievements of the ancient Shiekah and peppers her with questions about the mechanics of their construction. This strikes her passion, as her dissertation work focuses on untangling the mystery of Shiekah technology. Time flies by as she explains the current state of the findings.

As she is taking a breather to allow the group to take photos (“Remember, personal use only!”), Link approaches her. He places a calloused hand on her forearm to get her attention and, for a moment, she feels warmth skitter up her arm before she draws away.

“Thank you. I think we should be heading out.” His voice is soft, and his eyes don’t seem to hold any of the disdain he displayed earlier. “You’ve been very generous with your time.”

“N-no problem.” She clears her throat, fighting back the absurd warmth flooding her cheeks. _Wild pretty boy_ , she reminds herself. “It’s always a pleasure to speak with an enthusiastic audience.”

He nods, studying her face for a moment before giving her a small smile and turning away, gesturing for the group’s attention. Together, they lead the tour group out of the excavation area.

At the gate, Bolson clasps Zelda hands between his own. “Sweet Miss Zelda.” He cries, “It was a true pleasure. Beyond anything we could have hoped. If you are ever in Hateno or Akkala please reach out. We would love to host your lovely self.” He glances behind him. “Wouldn’t we, boys?”

“Yes sir!” The three Hylian men strike exaggerated poses while the Gerudo woman rolls her eyes fondly.

Zelda has to stifle a giggle as she accepts the business card that Bolson hands to her. “It was a pleasure.” She means it.

* * *

The sun is hovering close to the horizon by the time they make their way back towards the main lodge. They’d unwittingly stayed at the archaeological site for the entire afternoon, but nobody seems to mind the change in plans. Bolson and Karson chatter excitedly to each other about the various architectural elements that they were hoping to incorporate into their new designs while Hudson and Rhondson speak quietly to each other about their favorite part of the tour so far.

Link, left to his own devices, allows his mind to wander to the passionate young woman who gave the tour. _Zelda_. She’d mentioned that she was a graduate student of Dr. Purah’s at Hyrule University and had been working at the site for a number of years. He wonders briefly how it was possible that they hadn’t crossed paths until now, considering he has been spending his summers at Central Hyrule National Park since his college days. He reasons that it was probably to do with the fact that, prior to this summer, he’d worked almost exclusively with Daruk out in the backcountry and avoided having to give tours all together.

He definitely would have remembered her, if they’d met before. He thinks about the way her green eyes lit up and her cheeks flushed as she spoke about the research. He pictures the charming way her blonde ponytail bobbed as she gestured to the ruins. She doesn’t really look like what he imagines an archaeologist would look like, with her blonde hair and her long legs hidden under sturdy work clothes. Though, he supposes, he doesn’t really have a reference point for what an archaeologist should look like, considering Dr. Robbie was the only other real archaeologist he’s ever met.

He thinks back to the glare she shot him earlier, when he accidentally let out a scoff at her comment. He hadn’t meant to rile her up, it was just that he knew the challenges associated with getting the permits to work at the park and the cajoling it would take for the government to agree. Still, he can’t help but smile at the memory of her heated glare, glittering with a challenge he wants to answer.

As they clear the last stretch of the trail, Link imagines her smile and wonders what it would take for him to see her again. He knew that the excavation team was supposed to be in town for the next few months, working. He could hike out there on one of his days off, just to say hello. But no, that would be creepy and desperate, since they didn’t really know each other.

“Here we are!” Bolson’s sing-song voice breaks Link out of his musings. “Thank you for the flexibility, Link. We had an excellent time today, didn’t we boys?”

The duo cheer in appreciation.

“What’s the plan for tomorrow?” Hudson asks.

Link pauses to consider it. “There are a few trails with nice views of the valley that we could hike. You have a reservation at one of the lodges near the peak of Mount Hylia for tomorrow night and after that, Revali will be taking you gliding.

“How about we meet at ten o’clock tomorrow morning? You can spend the night stargazing if you’d like, this is a dark sky park and the skies look clear, then you can sleep in a bit in the morning.”

The group agrees enthusiastically and they part ways after Link circles a few spots on the map that would be ideal for stargazing. He stops by the cafeteria to pick up soup, a sandwich, and a slice of carrot cake for dinner before he makes his way to the park ranger office to check in with Chief Urbosa.

He knocks on the door and waits for her permission to enter the room.

“Come in.”

He nods at her as he enters and she smiles at him from her spot behind the desk. She gestures for him to sit, but he shakes his head. He doesn’t expect to be here long and he’s really looking forward to eating his dinner.

“How did it go?”

“Good.”

“And?” Urbosa arches a brow. “These are generous donors to the national parks, Link, I’ll need more details than that.”

He clears his throat. “Good.” He repeats. “We went to see the archaeological site today, on their request.”

“Oh, that’s right. The students got here two days ago for the field season. Did Purah lead the tour?”

He shakes his head. “One of her graduate students, Zelda.”

“Zelda!” Urbosa’s excitement surprises him a little. “That’s right, she’s here as one of Purah’s senior graduate students.”

Link blinks. “You know her?”

“Know her? Of course, I know her. She’s my goddaughter! I helped raise her.” She looks at him. “How was her tour?”

“Good.” He sees her raise her eyebrow again and continues without her prompt. “She was really good. You could tell she was super passionate about the work they were doing. Her eyes lit up whenever she was explaining things to us. She was super patient with everyone too, really took the time to break down specialist terms to us. She spent the entire afternoon with us and—” He cuts himself off, noticing the curious way Urbosa was looking at him. “Anyways, great—she was great.”

Urbosa looks at Link thoughtfully, not saying anything. He resists the urge to fidget. “I’m glad to hear it.” She speaks slowly, meaningfully. “It’s a shame that not that many visitors go by the site. It’s really a gem and with someone who is so great at giving the tour, it’s too bad that more visitors don’t know about it.”

Link recognizes Urbosa’s pointed look but seizes the lifeline she throws at him anyway. “I could bring more people by the site.” He offers. “Point it out more on the map when people ask for highlights.”

Urbosa hums with approval. “Make sure you ask for Zelda to give the tour.” She gives him a sly glance. “Say she’s been requested by her aunt Urbosa.”

Link feels a flush creep up his neck, feeling distinctly like he’d been found out. “Sure, sounds great.” He says.

_Really, really great._


	2. Chapter 2

It’s nearing the end of the third week and it’s starting to get a bit ridiculous. Since the day Zelda gave the tour to Bolson and Sons management, visitors have been coming by almost every other afternoon. Visitors aren’t usually a big distraction, but every time a group shows up at the gate, they request her by name. She gets pulled away from her work and has to guide the visitors around the site for the afternoon.

Accompanying every single group of visitors is Link, whose handsome half smile becomes increasingly infuriating with each visit. He always begins with a stupid tip of his stupid hat, introduces her to the group as ‘Archaeologist Zelda,’ and then proceeds to utter not a single word until her tour is over. At the end of the tour, he gives her another stupid tip of his stupid hat ( _honestly,_ who still does that?), thanks her for her time, and leaves. She originally thinks that he brings groups to the site in order to let someone else watch the tourists for a bit so that he can slack off from his own duties, but every visit she can feel him watching her as she talks, his blues eyes intensely attentive in a way that she can’t decipher.

She concludes that he must be bringing the groups by in order to show her how difficult it is to conduct excavations on park land by reminding her of the various compulsory civic duties and she vows never to let her frustrations show. So when she catches him watching her, she stares right back. _I am here to do important work and I will not be intimidated so easily_ , she thinks.

Despite her best efforts, Zelda’s frustrations are mounting by the third week. With Symin working strictly on his dissertation (“It’s my last summer, Zelda, I deserve a break after seven years of Purah!”), Jerrin seemingly stuck to Robbie’s side (“He’s just so _knowledgeable_ , Zel!”), and Kilton being Kilton (“Bones…I smell bones!”), Zelda becomes the defacto caretaker of the undergraduate students and has to spend her morning answering questions and dousing figurative fires at the site. In combination with the site tours she gives in the afternoons, she has little time to conduct any of her own research.

After giving the eighth site tour of the fledgling season, Zelda cracks and approaches Purah during the morning tea break for a solution. She hates that she has to ask her advisor for help, since she prides herself on being a highly competent and independent researcher. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

“Purah,” Zelda approaches her advisor’s make-shift desk, “I was wondering if you had a minute?”

Purah looks up from the tablet she was taking notes on and nods, the action causing her red rimmed glasses to slide down her nose. “Yes of course, Zelda, what is it?”

“With the influx of visitors at the site lately and with the other graduate students…” Zelda pauses, trying to phrase things delicately without getting the others in trouble, “otherwise indisposed in the mornings, I’m finding that I have very little time to work on my own research."

Purah peers at her owlishly, "Yes, and?"

"Well I was just wondering if there was any way I could spend some time working at the site after hours. Just to get my photography done."

Purah considers it for a moment. "Without either me or Robbie here, you wouldn't be able to work at the site. The national parks regulations forbid researchers without the proper training to be at the site alone. Plus, with the problems we’ve had with the Yiga in the past, it definitely would not fly…"

Zelda frowns, "But Purah, I have had no time to work on my own dissertation research. I need some more time at the site." She fidgets with the mug in her hand. "Is there any way I could get training?"

"Not in the middle of the season, no."

Zelda wants to pull her hair out. "Then can we ask the park rangers to stop bringing tourists by? They're completely disrupting my work."

"No." Purah's tone is surprisingly firm on this. "Site tours are part of the deal when we work in the national park and we can't refuse them."

Zelda sighs and slumps her shoulders.

"But..." Purah seems to take pity on her, "Maybe I can put in a word with the park rangers and see what the deal with the influx of visitors is about."

Zelda gives Purah a tight smile. It might not solve anything, but it wouldn't hurt. "Thanks Purah."

Purah pauses for another moment, considering, "And maybe I can speak with Urbosa about after hours work. If there is a park ranger present, you could probably be at the site. They're all certified for after hours park safety."

Zelda wants to protest, she's a trained archaeologist, she doesn't need a babysitter for heaven's sake, but rules are rules. "Thanks Purah."

Purah nods. "Okay, I'll talk to Urbosa after tea. Now shoo, I need to finish looking through this proposal before the day is done. Snip snap!"

* * *

"You've been over at the archaeology site an awful lot, haven't you, Link?" Revali drawls.

Link blinks and looks at the Rito. "I mean, Chief Urbosa requested that I bring more attention to it."

Revali snorts, "Right. All in the name of duty. Certainly nothing to do with the pretty blonde archaeologist that leads the tours."

Link ignores him and tosses his dart. It hits just below where he’d wanted it. He frowns as he jots down his new score. Word travels quickly among the park rangers when everyone lives, eats, and sleeps in such close proximity. His sudden interest in the archaeological work at the park had certainly not gone unnoticed.

They're seated in the mess hall after the end of their shifts. Mipha and Daruk are playing a game of cards at a nearby table while Revali and Link are shooting darts. Hearing Revali's comments, Daruk lets out a chortle, "Brother, you’re getting us in trouble, apparently the archaeologists aren’t so happy with the sudden increase in visitors."

“You mean they’re tired of lover boy here spending his afternoons mooning over their students?” Revali’s throw hits. With a glint in his eye, he turns to Link and pitches his voice high and breathless, “Oh Ranger Link, I love the way you come to my job and stare at me without saying anything. I love your flowing locks and—”

“That’s quite enough, Revali.” Mipha’s voice is quiet but firm.

Revali rolls his eyes before flitting away to add his new score to the board. “I’m just teasing, Mipha, relax.”

Mipha doesn’t look up from her cards, but Daruk responds instead. “I’m sure lil’ bro Link isn’t doing anything weird, Goro.”

Link nods gratefully at Daruk. He lines up his next throw. When it hits, he glances over at Revali, who only raises a cocky brow.

Truthfully, Revali’s assessment of the situation isn’t entirely inaccurate. It is true that he doesn’t say very much to her –he just doesn’t know what to say to someone that intimidatingly smart. But he always pays attention to her lectures, no matter how many times he’s heard it before. Link spends the visits watching her eyes sparkle as she talks and tries to work up the courage to ask her out for a drink.

Whenever their eyes meet, hers flash with defiance. He always looks away, embarrassed to be caught staring. By the end of each tour, he talks himself out of asking her out for one reason or another but then spends the walk back to his post berating himself for his cowardice. It’s a frustrating cycle.

Revali’s next throw is slightly off line, hitting the single value, rather than the double so Link manages to pull ahead. By the end of the round, Link manages to eke out a win. Revali only scoffs. “Had some lucky shots.”

At the table, Daruk lets out a little groan as Mipha beats him again. “How do you always win, Goro? I was sure I had it this round.”

Mipha smiles and pats Daruk’s massive hand. “You’re so focused on your own goals that you tend not to notice what your opponent is doing. It just takes some practice.”

Daruk sets the cards down. “Well I’m done losing for the night. Mipha, you can play someone else instead. Maybe Revali can do better.”

“Not me tonight,” Revali breezes to the coat rack to grab his scarf. “I’m on overtime duties tonight. The archaeologists apparently need more time at the site since _someone_ ,”—a pointed look at Link, “keeps disrupting their work. And guess who has to give up his evening? Little ol’ me.”

Link gives him an apologetic glance, but Revali only rolls his eyes again. “It’s whatever. I just have to sit outside for a few hours and make sure some silly researchers don’t accidentally hurt themselves in the dark.” He says.

As Revali heads out, Link makes his way over to where Mipha and Daruk are seated. He slides into the seat next to Daruk and spends the rest of the night coaching his friend to a handful of wins.

* * *

Being at the site after hours is quiet and peaceful; a nice change of pace from the hectic hustle and bustle of daytime field work. Zelda takes her time setting up her tripod for the long exposure shots of the softly glowing ruins. She has a map of the layout of the site and is trying to figure out the best places to take the overlapping photos required for the 3D model without too much distortion.

“If I set my scale bar here, it should be easy enough to cut it out for the final model.” She taps the end of her pen against her chin, “Although maybe I should start with this section…”

She paces, muttering various proposals to herself and jotting down notes. She’s pulled out of her calculations by a voice.

“Is there anybody else here? Or are you talking that much just to yourself?” A smirking male Rito leans against the gate.

Zelda feels the tips of her ears redden with embarrassment, “Just thinking out loud! There are a lot of considerations to be made and I want to get it right the first time, so I don’t have to keep coming back and—”

“Just teasing, doll.” The Rito makes his way to her and offers his hand, “I’m Revali. You must be the charming researcher who is the star attraction for the visiting tour groups.”

“What? No, I’m a graduate student of Purah’s I just—” She sees Revali’s smirk deepen and stops herself. “More teasing. Very funny. I’m Zelda.”

They shake hands and Revali gestures to the site. “So what exactly is it that the visitors are so keen to see?”

“I don’t _know_.” Zelda seethes. “I think it’s just that one park ranger. That guy, _Link_ , who keeps bringing visitors by to make my life difficult!”

Revali chuckles, “You know, you’re the first person I’ve met who isn’t completely enamored with him.”

“What’s there to be enamored with? He’s been constantly interrupting my research! It’s infuriating!”

For whatever reason, this delights Revali and he tosses his head back with a hearty laugh. He settles into a chair by the entrance and pulls out his phone. “I’ll be doing periodic rounds to make sure there are no trespassers at the site and make sure you don’t hurt yourself, but otherwise I’ll just be here if you need me. You need to wrap up in about two hours.”

Zelda nods, pleased that she could have the site to herself without any interruptions. She spends the next few hours mapping out various vantage points to take her photos. By the end of the night, she’s ready to tackle the project. By her calculations, by working at the site alone for three hours each night, she could be done with the photography in a few weeks.

Satisfied, she packs away her equipment and marches over to where Revali is slouched in his chair. He perks up as she approaches. “All done?”

“No.” She says, “but I’ve made a lot of progress! According to my estimation, I’ll need a couple of weeks to finish up the photogrammetry for the site and take the photos for digital alignment. I’ll put in the request with Urbosa tomorrow. Things would go faster if I had a little bit of help but I’m not sure Purah would let me take any of the undergraduates on site without her. Symin probably won’t help, but maybe Rotanda will. I could always ask Jerrin but—”

She stops her chatter as Revali opens the gate noisily, clearly bored and eager to head out.

“Sorry, yes thank you.” She tightens the straps of her backpack and turns to Revali. “I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

He shakes his head. “Goddesses, no. After hour shifts are rotated between the rangers. I was looking forward to a relaxing evening but drew the short end of the stick tonight.” He blinks and adds, “No offense.”

She laughs a little at his candor. “I guess I can’t blame you. Do you know who might be assigned for tomorrow?”

Revali looks at her, another smirk dancing across his features. “I don’t know for sure, but I have some idea who it might be.”

“Oh?”

“There’s no way to know until it happens.” He gestures down the path. “Let’s get going.”

* * *

Breakfast in the mess hall is usually a chaotic. Park rangers zip in and out on their way to and from their various shifts. Link is wedged in between Daruk, who is enthusiastically recounting his last close call out in the bush to another group of rangers, and Mipha, who is quietly nursing her green tea. For his part, Link has demolished his breakfast and is waiting for his friends to wrap up so they can head to the visitor’s center for their shift.

“Someone should go get Revali,” Mipha says to Link quietly. “He must have gotten back late last night to sleep in so much. It’s really unlike him.”

Link shrugs, leaning over to snipe a potato from Daruk’s plate as he is distracted. “I dunno when he got back last night. I was sleeping.”

“Well,” Mipha gives him a pointed look, “he must have been tired working overtime, with the archaeologists requesting a ranger for after hours work.”

Link snorts, “Yeah but I’m sure the after hours bonus rupees will make up for it.”

“ _Link!_ ”

He sighs. “Fine, fine. I’ll bring him a coffee and make sure he’s not late for his shift.”

He stands, clasps Daruk’s shoulder, and with a quick goodbye to the group heads out. Mipha had always been the kindest of them. To be fair to himself, Link had been feeling a bit guilty for hoisting additional work onto the other rangers. It was just that Revali himself had garnered very little of his pity. But Link is encouraged to be nice, so he pulls his tumbler from his bag, fills it with coffee, and grabs a few packets of sugar. Revali always did have a bit of a sweet tooth.

Their ranger’s cabin is only a short walk away from the mess hall and nobody answers when he knocks on the door. Link opens the door loudly and spots Revali still laying on his top bunk with a wing over his eyes.

“Oi.” Link prods him with his tumbler. “Get up.”

With his eyes stilled closed, Revali mumbles back, “What time is it?”

“Six forty, you’ll be late for your shift if you don’t get up now.”

Revali grunts back in response before sitting up. Rubbing his eyes blearily he half glares at Link. “This is your fault.”

“You’re usually the first up in the morning. It’s not my fault you didn’t get up.”

Revali takes the coffee and holds his wing out for the sugar expectantly. “If you didn’t go to the archaeological site every day to moon over your crush, she wouldn’t need to stay there after hours and I wouldn’t have had to stay up late to babysit her.”

Link freezes for a moment. _Play it cool_ , he tells himself. He tosses the sugar packets at Revali. “I’m sure the overtime pay was good.”

He makes his way to the door and hears Revali scramble to get ready. So _Zelda_ is the one that’s working after hours at the site. “So…do they need more after hours work tonight?”

Revali gives him a look that makes it clear that his attempts to be casual fell extremely flat. “Yes, the chatty researcher said that she needed a few weeks to finish up whatever it was that she was doing.”

 _Play it cool_ , Link reminds himself again. He scratches the back of his neck and shifts his weight. “Oh. Interesting.”

Revali scoffs. “You are so transparent sometimes.” He picks up his day pack and slings it over his shoulder before making his way to the door. “Thanks for the coffee. I guess we’re even now, you can thank Mipha for me.”

Following Revali out the door, Link can feel his mind whirring with excitement. He would have to speak to Urbosa about the after hours schedule. It is his fault that the rangers need to work overtime, after all. He’s just being good and taking responsibility for his mistakes. That said, Urbosa is particularly partial to the voltfruit candies that they sell at the gift shop. Perhaps it would be pertinent to pick up a pack before dropping by the main office.

“Alright, snap out of it, you lovesick puppy.” Revali’s voice interrupts his musings. “We’ve got work to do.”

The day flies by. The flow of visitors picks up as the day wears on and Link doesn’t bring any visitors to the archaeology site that afternoon. Instead, he purchases are pack of voltfruit candies during his break and races to the main office. Urbosa is seated at her desk, reading something off the screen of her computer when he barges in.

“Yes?” she glances away from her monitor and arches a brow.

“Can I do the extra night shifts?” Link blurts out, his previous plans flying out the window.

“What?”

“The extra hour night shifts. Can I—” He stops and decides to change tact. “Since it’s my fault that the researchers need more time at the site, I feel like I should take the responsibility of doing the extra work.”

Urbosa rotates her chair so that she’s fully facing him. “Taking responsibility, hmm?”

Link doesn’t squirm under her speculative glance. “Yes ma’am.”

Urbosa’s eyes sparkle with amusement. She looked at him for a moment, her eyes flicking down to the package of voltfruit candies he has half hidden behind him. “Well you’re on for the shift today anyway, but the schedule for the rest of the week has already been decided and distributed.”

Link frowns.

“But I’m alright with it if you want to talk to your fellow rangers and offer to take their shifts.”

He lets out a breath and she gives him a bemused look before turning back to her monitor.

“Great. Yeah. I’ll just…do that.” He bounces once on the balls of his feet before turning around.

“And leave those candies on the chair before you leave.”

* * *

Even with her workflow planned out, setting up the night photography equipment proves to be a challenge for Zelda. There are all sorts of bulky (and expensive) equipment that she has to struggle with. There are two cameras, three flashes, the scale bar, and the colour corrector to worry about. She’s in the midst of tightening a particularly finnicky screw when someone taps her on the shoulder.

She startles, nearly dropping the rig and its attached camera. “What!?” She whips around.

Ranger Link ( _wild pretty boy, bane of my existence,_ her mind supplies) takes a step back, one hand up in a placating motion. In his other hand, he holds a bag of cheese puffs and a bar of chocolate.

“What?” she repeats.

“Just wanted to say hello. And uh…” he clears his throat, “see if you wanted a snack.”

“No!” She’s outraged. “I can’t get cheese dust and chocolate stains all over this equipment. Do you have any idea how expensive it is?”

He blinks and takes another step back.

“No, this is fancy night photography equipment, and this is a place of science. I can’t just be _snacking_.” She almost scoffs, but as his brows wrinkle, she realizes that she’s being unreasonably rude. “But thank you.”

He nods, brows smoothing as he backs away. He takes his hat off and tips it at her before retreating to the seat by the gate.

She groans internally. What is wrong with her? She’s usually got much better manners than this, but something about him is under her skin. “You can snack, if you want.” She calls after him belatedly.

His eyes shoot up to meet hers and the corner of his mouth lifts slightly. The movement softens his face and his eyes seem to glow under the artificial site lighting. She feels the back of her neck and the tips of her ears heat up under his gaze.

“Yes. Very well then.” She turns abruptly, returning her focus to her camera rig. After a beat, she sneaks another glance over her shoulder at him. When he catches her looking, her entire face flushes red and she vows not to look at him for the rest of the evening.

Her vow only sort of works. She manages to get her equipment set up and is able to snap a series of photos of one of last year’s profiles. She should be able to test if her new method works with these pictures. But in between pictures, she can’t help glancing over at the ranger seated by the gates. His body language is relaxed but alert, as if he could spring into motion at any moment. His eyes seem to track her, as they did during the day. It’s probably because this is the first time he’s seen night photography in action.

At the end of the night, she has to dismantle most of the camera rig and store it away so that it doesn’t get in the way of the excavations. She looks at the heavy equipment and sighs. Just as she is about to kneel down to lift it, a voice interrupts her.

“Do you need a hand?” Link has moved from his post and come to stand next to her.

Zelda pauses, considering. It’s not like she couldn’t do it, but it has been a long day and she is exhausted. It wouldn’t hurt to have some help. He did offer, after all.

“Yes.” She shoots him a quick smile. “That would be great.”

His face brightens at her smile and she turns away quickly, before she can do something ridiculous like admire the sharp line of his jaw or give in to the urge to test her hypothesis about the strength of his shoulders.

Instead, she gestures to the largest camera rig. “If you can hold that steady, I can unscrew the extra arms on it so it can get packed away.”

He nods, picking up the equipment with ease and allowing her to go about dismantling. With his help, putting away the equipment is quick. She doesn’t have to verbalize her requests after that, as he seems to intuitively know what she needs him to do before she says anything.

With the last of the equipment safely stored and locked away, they head to the gate where she kneels down to turn off the power for the site. The sudden darkness that falls over them seems to amplify the silence. Zelda hears a click and looks up to see that Link has his flashlight turned on, angled slightly away so that the light doesn’t blind her.

“Thanks,” she murmurs, suddenly hesitant to disturb the quiet.

She stands, brushing her palms against her dusty pants before turning to him. He meets her eyes and without saying anything, motions to the exit with the flashlight. Taking his cue, she steps in front of him and leads the way out of the site, stopping only to lock up behind them.

The two of them walk towards the parking lot without exchanging any words, but the silence doesn’t feel strained. Zelda sneaks a peek at Link as they walk, wondering what he’s thinking as he keeps his gaze on the path in front of them. When they reach the parking lot, the only vehicle left there is her dusty SUV.

Curious, she turns to him. “Did you not park here?”

“Ah…no.” He rubs the back of his neck. “I actually live in one of the ranger’s cabins near the mess hall so I’m gonna walk back.”

She frowns, the mess hall is some ways back, in the other direction from the site. “You didn’t have to walk with me if you live in the opposite direction. I can find my way to my car.”

He seems a bit embarrassed. “It’s better to be careful with those Yiga punks sometimes lurking during the summers. Besides, it’s not far out of my way.”

She knows he’s lying, the mess hall is at least a mile back, but decides against pointing that out. He probably thinks she’s some kind of damsel in distress, these macho ranger types tend to be that way.

“Alright, well goodnight then.” She unlocks her car before turning to him.

“Drive safe,” he says, tipping his ranger’s cap at her. “See you tomorrow night.”

Zelda is about to pull the door shut behind her when she remembers Revali’s comment about how after hours shifts are rotated between rangers. She leans out of her car to ask him, but he’s already headed back to the trail. As she pulls her car out of the lot, her eyes flick to her rearview mirror and, in the dim lighting, she sees him standing at the edge of the parking lot, watching her drive away with a hand raised in a half wave.


	3. Chapter 3

Despite the ribbing Link gets from the other rangers, he is able to quickly convince them to let him take their after hours night shifts. With the early mornings and physically taxing work that the rangers have to do, the extra pay is not really enough incentive for them to stay up late. His original plan was to approach each of the rangers individually to offer to take their extra shifts and, with the extra income, take them out for lunch on a day off.

But he makes the mistake of approaching Daruk first. He tries to be casual with his question, pointing out that since Daruk has just returned from his trek in the backcountry, he is probably exhausted and not looking forward to doing an additional after hours shift. Daruk simply turns to Link with a glimmer in his eye and tells him to take his shift so that he can get to know that pretty little researcher better. Link sputters a halfhearted denial, but Daruk just claps him on the back and laughs.

Then Daruk, with his frank Goron sensibilities and absolute lack of boundaries or subtlety, calls down the table to Revali and Mipha and tells them that Link needs their shifts to woo his girl. Flustered, Link tries to explain that he felt bad for making the others pick up slack for something he caused, but Revali’s snort and Mipha’s head shake show that he’s not fooling anyone. Both of them agree to give him their shifts anyway, with Revali making a snide comment about desperation and Mipha giving him a small, sad smile.

It turns out that getting the shifts was the easy part. Doing all the additional after hours work on top of his regular day shifts has Link burning the candle on both ends. He hasn’t consumed this much coffee since his college days. But somehow, no matter how tired he is, he finds himself perking up when he approaches the site and spots Zelda pacing and hears her muttering to herself. She’s usually too engrossed in her thoughts to hear him approach, so he makes a point to tap on the gate as he passes by. Without fail, the sound draws her attention and for a brief, wonderful moment, she meets his eyes. He’s always taken aback by the depth and clarity he sees in her green eyes. She then mutters a quick hello before her gaze darts away. He makes a point to tip his cap at her, hoping that she appreciates the old-fashioned gesture, before retreating to his seat at the entrance.

It’s the third night of after hours work and Link finally works up the nerve to speak to her. She’s balanced on a mat, pushing what looks like thumb tacks into one of the walls. As she steps back to survey her work, Link approaches.

“Can I help?”

She jumps nearly a foot in the air and drops the mat she had been holding. “Goddesses, you scared me!”

He fields her glare and fights away a smile. _Cute_.

“You seem like you’re doing a lot. You need help?”

She assesses him, tilting her head to the side for a moment before coming to a decision.

“Yes, that would be nice, thank you.” She hands him a scale bar and a plastic sheet with coloured squares. She gestures to her right. “Can you stand right here and hold these up?”

He assumes the position but realizes that she probably wants as little of him in the shot as possible. She steps back and adjusts her tripod. Estimating based on where the camera is positioned, Link angles his body out of the view. She glances through the viewfinder.

“I was going to tell you to stand so that only the scale bar and the colour correction chart are in the shot, but actually…” She looks up from the camera at him. “Actually, you’re perfect.”

He feels the tips of his ears redden and doesn’t know what to say, so he just nods.

After that, Zelda has him hold the two items in a few other shots. He is able to predict the camera perspective pretty well and takes pride in the impressed eyebrow raises that she gives him each time she checks the viewfinder.

She talks to herself as she works, commenting aloud on her next steps and corrections she needs to make. When she is focusing extra hard, she doesn’t talk, but rather has the adorable habit of poking the tip of her tongue out of her mouth and squinting. It’s all so cute he wants to snap a photo. But that would be creepy.

A little over an hour into the shift, he notices her energy waning.

“Ah…Do you want to take a break?” he asks her after they finish another round of photos. “I brought snacks.”

She frowns. “I told you—”

“I didn’t bring cheese puffs and chocolate this time. I asked other archaeologists what snacks were okay to have at the site, so I brought granola bars and dried fruit.” He hurries to correct himself.

“Oh.” She seems surprised by this and her frown softens. “Yes, that would be nice.”

He wants to punch the air with excitement, but that would be weird, so he doesn’t. Instead, he walks to his bag and pulls out the snacks. They make their way to the entrance and take a seat on the floor, facing the site and leaning against the gate.

“I didn’t know what you liked so I got a little bit of everything.” He hands her a bag of dried apricots, a bag of dried apples, a bag of banana chips, and five different flavours of granola bars.

“Wow.” She looks down at the selection in her hands. “This is a lot.”

He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. Maybe he was coming on a little strong. But he pushes forward anyway. “Ah, but here’s my favourite.” He produces a bag of spiced dried mangoes from his bag with a flourish.

Her eyes light up at the mangoes. “Those are my favourite too!”

He hands them over with a grin and watches as she picks a slice out enthusiastically. Her eyes flutter shut as she munches on the mango and she chews for a few moments before turning to him.

“Hey! I thought rangers were supposed to rotate after hours shifts, how come it’s been you every night since the first?”

He freezes. “Ah…some scheduling changes happened, and I ended up with the shifts. Stuff like this happens all the time.”

She looks at him suspiciously, but before she can dig deeper, he changes the subject. “So, what exactly are you working on?”

She turns her glance back to the site and takes a nibble of the mango. “Digital archaeology.”

He reaches for the bag of dried apples. “Sounds fancy. What does that mean?”

She seems a bit surprised that he asked but sits up straighter to answer. He can feel her enthusiasm rolling off her in waves. “Glad you asked! Basically, I’m trying to document the site through digital media like photography, 3D modeling, and location data. Because archaeological sites are limited resources that are gone once we excavate them, I’m trying to preserve them as much as we can for future generations.

“I’m also trying to make sure that the public can access this information too! Academia is largely publicly funded research and so we should be giving knowledge back to people. They should be able to see what an archaeological site looks like.”

Link shifts so that he’s looking directly at her. Her green eyes are glowing with excitement and she uses her hands to emphasize her words. She has a smudge of dirt across her right cheek and her braid Is beginning to unravel but somehow he feels more drawn to her than ever.

“You really love this stuff, huh?”

She turns those remarkable eyes to him and he feels a jolt down his spine. She gives him a genuine smile before continuing.

“Yeah.” She fishes around for another slice of dried mango. “When I was a kid, my dad was pretty strict, so I wasn’t allowed to watch a lot of TV. But I was allowed to watch educational programs. One day I was watching this feature on ancient civilizations and they were interviewing Purah.” She takes a bite before continuing. “She was so awesome and excited about her work on ancient Shiekah cultures. It was infectious.”

“That’s what got you into archaeology.”

She hums in agreement as she turns back to the site. “I’ve been trying to be the same kind of inspiration for kids everywhere.”

Link studies her face in profile, her long lashes, the curve of her cheek, the line of her nose, and her pink lips. She turns to him and freezes when he shoots his eyes up to meet hers – _oops_. Her cheeks flush pink and she crams the rest of the fruit into her mouth.

“Time to get back to work.” She says, through a mouthful of mango.

He pushes himself off the floor and offers her a hand. She grasps it and he helps her up. Without meaning to, he runs his thumb across her knuckles. She jerks her hand back, gives him a strange look, and retreats deeper into the site.

 _Keep it together_ , he scolds himself. He needs to figure out if she’s interested before he does weird stuff like stroke her hands. He’s not allowed to think about things like whether or not she likes holding hands or how she would feel tucked under his arm or how the curve of her hip would feel against his hands or whether her green eyes would sparkle so fiercely if they kissed or—

He reins in his own thoughts. One step at a time. He glances across the site at her just in time to catch her sneak a surreptitious look back at him. Carefully, he smooths a blank expression on his face. He hopes that on top of being intimidatingly intelligent and incredibly cute, she isn’t also a mind reader.

* * *

With Purah’s permission and Urbosa’s backing (Zelda files a mental note to send a ‘Thank you’ card to her godmother later), she’s able to continue her after hours work. Miraculously, everything is going smoothly. She has to take more photos than she’d originally planned, but the work is comforting, and she knows it will pay off.

Ranger Link, wild pretty boy, bane of Zelda’s existence, turns out not to be so bad after all. It seems that after he sees the additional work that she has to get done, he realizes how disruptive having visitors at the site is for her. He doesn’t stop bringing them by, but the frequency of tours drops significantly. It gives her time during the day to get ahead with her site technician work. At night, his presence at the site is steady and comforting instead of irritating. He’s a surprisingly good listener and doesn’t seem to mind her chattering while she works. He’s helpful with set up and take down of equipment, plus he makes a habit of bringing dried mangoes for her to snack on. For whatever reason, he seems keen to get on her good side.

The third week of excavations ends without much fanfare. Zelda spends the weekend catching up on sleep and processing her photos. Jerrin teases her for being all work and no play and Symin half-jokingly threatens to take her laptop away if she didn’t stop making the rest of the grad students look bad. Zelda laughs with her friends, though she mostly ignores them. She does allow herself to get pulled into going out for dinner on Saturday night to placate them.

It rains on Monday and Tuesday, leading to a grumpy and damp field team. Zelda’s after hours work is minimal, since she isn’t able to pull out the full set of camera equipment. Instead, she spends time sketching the structures that are slowly being unveiled and taking notes about how the rain affects the glowing ruins. Link, of course, continues to be the after hours ranger.

By Wednesday, the rain clears up and she is glad to be able to get back to her documentation. The prospect of finally being able to get back to work causes her heart to race when she spots Link making his way through the gates.

“Link!” she calls out, “We can finally pull the camera rigs out again. Come, we have lots of work to catch up on.” She waves him towards the waterproof bins.

His eyebrows lift at her enthusiasm, but he doesn’t say anything.

As she’s pulling the equipment out, she realizes she hasn’t even greeted him yet. “Oh um. Hi and um. Thanks.”

He still doesn’t say anything, but he smiles at her and she has to turn back to the bins to hide her ridiculous blush.

As usual, set up is quick with Link’s help and Zelda is quickly able to immerses herself in her work. She works quickly on a few sets of photos, noting the places where she will need Link to hold the scale bar and color correctors again. About an hour later, she hears the scrape of a chair.

“Ah, Zelda?” His voice comes from across the site. “I’m gonna step out for a minute. I have to do something.”

She turns to look at him, confused by the vague phrasing. He coughs into his hand awkwardly and shifts on his feet. She realizes that he has to use the restroom, so she waves him off. “Okay, I’ll be here.”

She watches as he steps out of the gate and disappears down the trail. She turns back to her camera and adjusts it. She snaps a few photos to test out the new angle and is the middle of studying the photo when she hears the crunch of footsteps on the trail.

“That was fast.” she says, without looking up from her camera.

When there’s no response, she turns around. She doesn’t see anybody at the entrance and it’s too dark to see more than a few feet past the gate.

“Link?” she calls out, suddenly feeling uneasy.

There’s still no response.

“Link, if that’s you, it’s not funny.”

Suddenly, there is a creepy giggle and it feels like all the hairs on her arm stand up on end. “Link!” A panicky feeling begins to settle in her chest.

There is a flash of motion at the gate and she sees two hooded figures with bandanas pulled over their mouths. Printed on the bandana is an upside-down eye. They approach the gate with menacing movements. Her heart is pounding in her throat, it’s clearly not Link and she’s all by herself at the site.

“No visitors are allowed at the site right now.” She tells the two people. She tries to be firm, but her voice is choked with fear.

They ignore her and unlatch the gate. The giggling intensifies. Zelda backs away and sets the camera down behind her. There’s another entrance to the site, but it would involve her climbing around a bunch of old test pits. She has to do something. Has to get out of here.

“I don’t know who you are, but you’re not allowed here!” she yells at them, her voice pitching high and terrified.

The two menacing figures advance on her. She sees the glint of what might be a knife. She casts around for something to defend herself with. Her hand lands on her trowel and she grabs it desperately.

“Stay back!” she shrieks, holding her trowel in front of her. Her hands are shaking.

The hooded figures look like they’re ready to pounce on her when suddenly the gate flies open. Link rushes forward, his face locked in a menacing snarl. His appearance startles the two intruders and they turn to face him instead.

Link has an intercom in one hand and a baton in his other. His eyes flicker over to Zelda, quickly assessing her status, before they focus back on the intruders. He speaks rapidly into the intercom, but she can’t hear him over the frantic rush of her heartbeats. The intruders charge at him while he’s speaking. He drops the intercom and lifts the baton.

There’s a flurry of motion that Zelda is nearly too frazzled to follow. Link seems to land hits on the intruders, as one of them hisses and drops the knife he was holding. Link leaps forward again and strikes the other intruder on the knee, causing it to buckle beneath him. His eyes never leaving the intruders, Link moves so that he stands between them and Zelda. The two intruders seem to reassess the situation and, with the echoes of a giggle, dash back out of the site.

Zelda stares at the entrance, wanting to make sure that the intruders are gone. Link stands a few paces in front with his back to her, facing the entrance. There is a moment of tense silence. They are alone. Suddenly, it is as if all the energy in her body is sucked from her and she drops to her knees with a sob. Her trowel clatters to the ground beside her.

Link whips around and comes to kneel in front of her. Her heart is still pounding and her hands are shaking a little.

“Zelda.” Link’s voice sounds like it’s coming from far away. “Zelda, it’s okay. I’m here.”

Her eyes can’t seem to focus. Who were those people? What were they trying to do?

“Zelda, I’m going to take your hand now, okay? Can you feel my hand?”

The feeling of his warm hands enveloping her own grounds her. She stares at them for a moment before raising her eyes to his face. He’s watching her closely.

“Zelda, breathe with me for a moment.” He takes an inhale through the nose. “In through the nose and out through the mouth.” He exhales.

She mimics him through several breaths. Her heart rate calms a little. Her hands are still clammy from the adrenaline. Link seems to notice this, so he takes off his jacket and drapes it gently over her shoulders. It’s warm, sturdy, and smells like the woods. He takes her hands again.

“You okay?” His voice is soft.

“Thank you,” she whispers, still not quite able to find her voice. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been here. I—” Her voice drops off.

“It’s nothing.” he whispers back, his thumbs rubbing soothing circles on the backs of her hands. “Just doing my job.”

She tamps down on an involuntary shiver and swallows thickly before raising her gaze to meet his. His eyes, trained on her face, are luminous and blue. His brows are drawn, and his lips are pursed in a tight frown.

“I shouldn’t have just left you by yourself. I was careless. The Yiga tend to wreak havoc this time of year and I just left you here alone with the gate unlocked. It was stupid.”

“Yiga?” Zelda’s eyes widen. “That was the Yiga?”

She’d been warned by Purah and some of the other senior graduate students that there was a local gang that occasionally would try to break into the storage facilities at the museum to steal artifacts. Purah had spent a large chunk of money from one of her grants upgrading the security equipment at the museum after a break in had occurred a few years ago. But despite the previous incidences, but she had never heard of them coming straight to the site.

“Yeah. I recognized their bandanas.” He lets go of one of her hands to run his hand through his hair wearily. “I’ll have to speak with Chief Urbosa about this. We can’t just keep letting them do this.” He returns his hand to hers. “But don’t worry. You’ll be safe. I’ll make sure of it.”

His eyes lock on hers with heated conviction and she knows that the new pounding of her heart is not from fear. She feels like she can trust him with anything.

In the distance, Zelda can hear the sound of people approaching. At the same time, she and Link turn to face the entrance. She notices the way he shifts so that she’s still solidly behind him. Voices he seems to recognize call out to him and some of the tension leaves his body. Backup has arrived.

Zelda gets swept up by the rangers and a hot chocolate is shoved into her hands. They ask her a few questions before Link draws their attention away. She's grateful because her brain is a bit fuzzy and she isn't sure she can properly articulate any more answers. She pulls his jacket tighter around her shoulders, the weight and smell of it is comforting. The rest of the night is a whirlwind of activity but Link is there with her the whole time. His presence soothes her and he seems to feel the same way, as he doesn’t leave her side. She feels him watching her periodically, even as he speaks to the other rangers. The way he looks at her makes her feel safe, like he would never let her be harmed. She wraps that feeling around herself, and it’s even more comforting than his jacket.

The rangers file a report with the local police. Link is taken to the police station to give a statement, but mercifully (and at his insistence), they let her go back to the dig house. Purah and Robbie are both awake and waiting for her. Purah is furious that nobody called her earlier. Tiredly, Zelda has to explain in detail what happened at the site. Purah and Robbie fret about security measures but they finally take pity on her and they tell her to go get some rest.

It’s late by the time she collapses into her bed. She slips under the covers and nearly immediately falls into a deep, dreamless sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

They keep the Yiga incident relatively under wraps, not wanting to spook visitors to the site. However, the archaeologists are all informed and told to stay vigilant in case of future incidences. Nobody on the field crew says anything to Zelda about her involvement in the events of the previous night, but she knows that they heard about it. Without her asking, Jerrin brings her some tea in the morning and Symin takes over supervising the students. Even Kilton gifts her a small bottle of what he calls ‘Monster extract’ (“For your energy”, he tells her seriously). With their care, Zelda manages to have a relatively relaxing morning.

During morning tea, Purah calls her over.

Before she can get a word in, Purah says to her, “No more after hours work.”

“But Purah! I still have stuff to finish up.” Zelda should have seen this coming.

“I got word from Chief Urbosa and it’s dangerous to have people there after hours if those Yiga punks are lurking.”

Zelda tightens her grip on her tea mug. She knows Purah is right and honestly, she isn’t sure she fully feels safe at the site after dark. But she still has the photo set that she only half completed before the Yiga broke in.

“I just have just one set of photos to finish up. I just need one more night at the site.” she pleads.

“Do them in the afternoon.” Purah says.

“The lighting is going to be different and the 3D model won’t come out right.”

Purah narrows her eyes. “Do you absolutely need these photos?”

“Yes.” Zelda thinks quickly. “It won’t take long. I’ll put together the camera rig this afternoon so that it’s ready to go. I’ll wait until sunset, come by the site, snap the last few pictures, then I’ll leave. Half an hour, tops.”

Purah looks uncertain. “I don’t know…”

“I’ll have the park ranger with me the whole time.” Zelda promises. “I’ll get him to walk me to my car and everything.”

Purah thinks on this for a moment before finally relenting. “You promise to be extra careful? Call me if anything, _anything_ goes wrong.” she says sternly.

Zelda nods enthusiastically.

She spends the rest of the day wandering around the site. Everyone seems loathe to let her do any hard work after her ordeal the night before. But she still manages to force her way into an excavation square and relishes in the feeling of the dirt beneath her fingers. As she promised Purah, she spends the last little bit of the workday putting together the camera rigs for the evening.

Zelda packs up with the rest of the crew, but instead of heading back to the dig house with them, she makes her way to the main hall to wait for sunset. She kills time by making plans for her digital workflow in her notebook.

Eventually she runs out of things to write, so she wanders through the dining area. Her stomach rumbles a little when she smells the food being prepared. She remembers that Link always brings her snacks after hours and, since this was the last day, she should probably bring him something in return.

She walks through the dining area, peering at the limited options. She spots a dessert fridge with questionable looking brownies and a few slices of fruitcake. She considers the fruitcake for a moment. It’s her favourite, but it really isn’t practical to bring to the site. Instead, she purchases a bag of cheese puffs and a bar of chocolate.

She makes her way out of the main hall just as the sun is setting. The last of the rays light her way to the site. Her timing is impeccable, as she spots Link on the trail in front of her.

“Hey! Link!”

He turns around and his face lights up. He tips his ranger’s cap at him and she laughs a little at the goofy, old-fashioned gesture. He smiles at her. They walk side by side on the trail.

“Purah told me that today’s the last day I’m allowed to do after hours work.” she tells him.

He nods and she realizes that Urbosa probably already informed him. His expression is neutral, but she can sense an underlying tension in the way he’s holding himself.

She continues. “I just wanted to thank you for putting up with me for these last few weeks. I know I haven’t always been the nicest to you, but you’ve been so helpful and I want you to know how much I appreciate it.”

He seems surprised and a light flush creeps up his neck. “No worries.” he says.

“You always bring me snacks, so I thought I should get you something in return. I didn’t know what you liked, so I got you cheese puffs and chocolates, just like you did on that first night.”

She pauses on the trail for a moment to pull the snacks from her bag. She hands them to him and they keep walking. She picks up the pace to avoid looking at him because she suddenly feels a bit awkward. When she reaches the gate, she unlocks the padlock, takes a deep breath, and turns around to face him. He’s looking at her with a smile. His expression is warm and she fights down a blush.

“A-anyways.” she gestures for him to enter. “You can have those snacks later. I have to get these photos done quickly so we can get out of here.”

Getting the rest of the photos done is quick. With the camera rig already set up, it takes nearly no time for Zelda to capture the rest of the required photos. As she waits for the camera exposure, she finds her gaze turning to Link. He’s standing by the gate, positioned so that he can keep an eye on her and the trail at the same time. He’s even more alert than she’d seen him previously, the events of the night before probably have him on edge too.

She snaps the final photo and checks to make sure everything is in focus. Nodding to herself, she turns the camera off. Before she says anything, Link seems to materialize beside her. She gives him a grateful smile and he holds her glance for a moment before they take apart the equipment.

They work quickly, synchronizing their movements easily. Their hands brush a few times as he passes her pieces of the camera rig to put away, and each time she feels a spark hum up her arm. She wonders if he feels it too.

Turning off the generator and locking the gate behind them feels sad and final somehow. It feels like the end of something, but she doesn’t quite know what it is. But it’s still relatively early in the evening and Zelda isn’t ready to say goodbye yet. She doesn’t know what it is, but she feels driven to spend more time with him. Instead, she turns to Link.

“Hey, do you mind walking me to my car? I told Purah that I’d have a ranger with me until I left the park.” she says.

He nods, surprised that she asked. Even without the Yiga incident, he’d been walking her to the parking lot every night after work anyway.

“And um...” She smooths down her hair, “Can we take a quick detour on our way back? I heard that there’s a pond near the trailhead where Silent Princesses grow naturally. They’re in season right now and I’ve never seen them in the wild.”

He nods again. His lack of words should bother her, as someone who has made a life on reading and writing. But she finds that she likes the way he seems to carefully consider each of her words, like he’s really, really listening. He guides her forward with a gentle palm on her back, the heat of his hand radiating through her work shirt.

Together, they make the hike back to the parking lot. The trees around them are large and sturdy. Despite her scare the night before, hiking along the trail calms her. With the crunch of dirt beneath her feet and Link’s steady breathing next to her, she feels safe. The nearly full moon is large and bright overhead, so they don’t need a flashlight. She can hear crickets in the background and the occasional flutter of wings. She keeps peering at Link as they walk, trying to determine what he’s thinking. His face is impassive, but there’s something very determined about the set of his shoulders.

A little bit before the parking lot, there is a divergent trail, with a sign labeled Satori pond. He gestures down the path and she nods. It’s been said that on certain nights, Satori pond glows and people swear that they see little blue creatures bounding across the field. There’s an air of mystery and intrigue surrounding the pond and it’s bolstered by the presence of the rare Silent Princess flowers.

The trail is well traveled, since it’s relatively close to the trailhead. The trees give way to shrubs, slowly revealing a grassy plain. The moon overhead feels like it’s coming closer as the trees disappear. The pond is beautiful and, even in the light of the moon, she can see the clarity of the waters. The shore of the pond is lined with blue nightshades and Silent Princesses.

With a delighted exclamation, Zelda drops to her knees next to a Silent Princess. She pulls out her phone and snaps a photo.

“Wow, they really seem to glow in person, don’t they?” she turns to Link, excited. “I’ve read a lot about these flowers, they were my mother’s favourite, but I never got to see one grow in the wild like this. They’re much bigger here than the ones I’ve seen domesticated. I wonder if it’s something to do with the soil quality of being next to a pond or the process of domestication. Maybe it’s both? I bet you could test…”

She trails off as he smiles at her. “Sorry,” she says, “you probably don’t need to know this much about a random flower.”

He shakes his head. “I like hearing you talk.”

The sincerity in his tone makes her want to shy away. But the way he’s looking at her, like he really _sees_ her and still wants to know more about her forces her to keep his gaze. The air around them is warm and tingling with energy. He doesn’t look away either.

He takes a deep breath and without a word, he approaches her. He offers her a hand and she takes it. When he pulls her up, she takes a step forward and suddenly they’re standing so close that their toes are nearly touching. She doesn’t let go. She hears his sharp intake of breath but doesn’t look up. His hand is warm and wrap neatly around her smaller hand. She strokes the tops of his knuckles with her thumb, remembering how that action from him had caused her heart to hammer in her chest. The strength of her reaction to him scared her then. But she isn’t scared now.

She finally glances up at him. Despite his mysterious silence, the expression on his face is open, soft, and adoring. _Oh,_ she thinks, _this is right_. They continue to look at each other and the feeling of certainty spreads through her body and settles in her chest.

“Hey—”

“Zel—”

They both stop, laughing a little.

“You go first.” she urges. She lets out a nervous breath.

His eyes are intent on hers. The look of determination from earlier is back. His eyes flicker down to glance at her lips. Her heartrate gallops as the moment becomes charged with a different energy.

“Zelda,” his voice is soft, a whisper of wind in the stillness of the night, “can I kiss you?”

“Yes.” The word barely out of her mouth before he leans down and presses his lips to hers.

He pulls her to him lightly and kisses her gently, as if he doesn’t want to scare her. The kiss is sweet and soft. He draws away from her slowly, the tips of their noses just brushing. From this close, she can smell his woodsy aftershave and the slight tang of his sweat.

“Um..Zelda?”

“Mm?” She’s distracted by the sliver of his tongue as he wets his lips. She wants him to kiss her again.

She leans forward to kiss him but he draws back. She makes an irritated noise but before she can say anything he speaks.

“Can I maybe take you on a date sometime?” The words spill out of him, a torrent breaking through a dam.

Nerves, she realizes. He’s nervous about asking her out. She can’t help but smile. He saved her by fighting off two trespassers and yet he’s somehow nervous about asking her out.

“Yes,” she says, “I would like that very much.”

A smile lights up his handsome face, his blue eyes sparkling with excitement. “Saturday?” he asks.

She can’t help but smile back. “That sounds perfect.” she says and pulls him back in for another kiss.

He responds with enthusiasm. His hands travel up her back, leaving little fires under her skin. She runs her hands across his shoulders, admiring the solid muscles. His teeth are gentle against her lower lip and she rocks onto her toes to press even closer. The kiss is heated, but the movements feel instinctive, natural.

They’re interrupted by the buzz of her phone. With them being so closely intertwined, they both feel the notification. She extracts herself with a sigh.

“I think I need to go.” she says to him a little breathlessly.

“Yeah.”

They head to the parking lot and Zelda is surprised when he softly links their hands as they walk. The gesture is oddly intimate, but she likes the way his larger hands envelop hers. She shoots a sidelong glance at him, but he’s looking ahead, the tips of his ears red.

When they reach her car, she turns to him, swinging their interlocked hands between them. “I’ll see you on Saturday?”

“Yeah,” he says softly. “Saturday.” He considers it for a moment. “How about breakfast?”

“Breakfast?” she echoes, surprised.

“I know just the spot.” He promises. “I’ll come get you at nine?”

“Okay.” She squeezes his hand.

His smile is brilliant and she can’t help but smile back. He untangles their fingers and somehow still remembers to tip his cap at her. She rolls her eyes but leans forward and presses a kiss to his cheek. “Bye.” she whispers.

Her cheeks are pleasantly warm as she slips into her car. Through her rearview mirror, she watches him watch her drive away with a dopey smile on his face.

* * *

Link spends Friday in a daze. Outwardly, he’s still performing his ranger duties with perhaps less enthusiasm than usual. But inwardly, he’s reliving that magical moment with Zelda at Satori pond. He can’t stop thinking about her smile, her eyes, the way she felt in his arms. He gets so distracted that he nearly trips on some roots while clearing trails with Daruk. The Goron, for his part, doesn’t say anything. He just grins at Link with knowing look.

That evening, Link spends a ridiculous amount of time trying to decide what to wear on the date. He rifles through his limited closet looking for something that isn’t too wrinkled or smelly or stained. He pulls so many outfits on and off that eventually Revali launches a pillow across the room at him and grumbles, “Wear the dark green shirt and stop making so much noise.”

Link decides that the green shirt does look nice on him and sets it out on the chair before going to bed.

He’s up early the next morning to prepare for the date and manages to pull up to the dig house ten minutes before nine. He takes a deep breath and gets out of his car. To his surprise, Zelda is already outside. She’s reading on a bench in the small courtyard of the dig house, with her feet curled up beneath her. At the slam of his car door, she glances up and she shoots him a shy smile.

“Hi.” she says, standing and tucking her book into her small bag. “Um…I wasn’t sure where we were going, so I hope I’m dressed for the occasion.”

She’s wearing a white, offshoulder top with sleeves that flow around her arms and a pair of faded blue jeans. He realizes that this is the first time he’s seen her out of her field clothes. Her hair is braided away from her face and drapes over one of her shoulders. He’s momentarily distracted by the curve of her neck.

She fidgets for a moment. “I hope sneakers are okay. I don’t bring my nice shoes to the field.”

He looks down at her feet. He hadn’t even noticed that she was wearing a pair of beat up sneakers.

“Yeah,” he says, “actually, they’re perfect.”

He wipes his palms on his pants and offers her his arm. She smiles and loops her arm through his and they make their way to his car. He opens the passenger side door of his old Forester and she climbs in daintily.

They make comfortable small talk as he drives. It’s mostly him listening to her chatter, but he likes it anyway. When he pulls into a trail head parking lot, she turns to him.

“I thought we were getting breakfast?”

“We are.” he says, giving her a roguish smile, “Come on an adventure with me.”

He parks the car and she hops out before he can make his way around to open her door. He pops open the trunk of his car and retrieves cooler bag and a basket. She joins him and her face brightens with understanding. She offers to take the basket from him, but he shakes his head. He slings the cooler bag over his shoulder and shifts the basket into one of his hands and offers the other to her.

She takes his hand without hesitation and allows him to pull her along the trail. Summer is in full bloom in Hyrule. Thankfully, this is one of the lesser known trails at the park and they only encounter a handful of other people. He guides her along a secret path and, when they make their way through the last cluster of trees, he hears her gasp.

“Oh!” Her eyes are wide as she takes in the sight. “What a view!”

He feels a small, slightly smug, smile creep onto his face. They’re part of the way up Mount Hylia and, from this viewpoint, they can see the rolling green fields of Hyrule plains with Lake Hylia and the Dueling Peaks in the distance. She turns to him.

“How did you find this place?”

He sets his bags down and pulls a picnic blanket from the basket. “Earlier this year I was doing some trail maintenance with another ranger and we came across some notes about this spot from a previous ranger.” He shrugs as he lays out the blanket. “We decided to see if we could find it.”

“And then you filed the knowledge away so that you could impress your future dates?” she teases.

“Nah,” he says, looking away as he lays out the breakfast he packed. “I’m trying to impress my date with this.” He gestures at the food.

In truth, Link is pretty proud of the breakfast that he prepared. He had limited resources at the ranger’s cabin, but he managed to put together a selection of fresh sliced fruit, both sweet and savory rolls from the mess hall kitchen with various jams, cured meats, and cheeses to accompany them.

He pulls out two thermoses. “I didn’t know if you drink coffee or tea, so I brought both. Or if you drink neither, I brought juice.” He pulls out a bottle of apple juice and a bottle of orange juice.

Zelda stares down at the spread in astonishment. “Wow.” She meets his eyes. “You really went all out, huh?”

He rubs the back of his neck. “Just wanted to make sure you enjoyed yourself.”

She rewards him with a smile like the sun.

They settle down on the blanket to eat, half facing each other, half facing the vista. He takes note of the way she prefers tea with two small packs of sugar, how she likes savoury rolls with jam, and her fondness of all the fresh fruits. On his part, he’s happy to eat anything she doesn’t.

Conversation flows easily between them as they eat. Link has never been particularly chatty, but Zelda makes up for it with aplomb. They talk about anything and everything. Zelda tells him about the first time she contacted Purah about graduate school and how she was so nervous that she accidentally signed the email with Purah’s name instead of her own. She laughs so hard at the memory that he has to wait for her to choke out the final few words of the story. In turn, Link tells her about the time tore his pants right down the middle leaning forward over a map in his first summer as a ranger. Her laughter bubbles out of her and he feels the warmth of her joy settle into him.

As they talk, they move closer and closer together. By the time the food is mostly gone, they’re sitting shoulder to shoulder on the blanket, leaning back into their hands, with his arm slightly behind her so that she can lean into him.

She’s in the middle of a story about getting lost in a dark museum after hours while she was doing data collection and how she found herself in dark room full of weird taxidermy hyenas. Her face is animated when she talks, and she shifts forward so that she can gesture as she tells her story. He is struck by how comfortable it feels to sit next to her and listen to her talk. How, even though they’ve only really known each other for a few weeks, he feels like he’s known her forever.

When she finishes her story, she leans back on her hands again to settle comfortably against his side. She’s still beaming from the chuckle that she managed to pull from him. Having her beside him feels even better than he’d imagined. It’s like he belongs here, at her side, and so it’s the most natural thing in the word to turn his head and press a kiss to her temple.

She freezes and, for a moment, he’s worried that he did something wrong, overstepped her boundaries somehow. But she turns to face him and he can see the warmth in her eyes. She cups his face in both her hands and kisses him, both their eyes flutter shut.

The kiss is soft and unhurried. He shifts so that he can pull her into his lap. She follows the movement and settles comfortably against him. He feels her hair curtain around them and smells the slightly floral scent of her shampoo. He keeps his arms loosely around her waist, reveling in the heat of her skin through her top. Their mouths move smoothly against each other, gently exploring and teasing.

“Link.” she mumbles when they draw apart.

“Yeah?” His head feels fuzzy with happiness.

“I don’t want to make things weird but…” She bites her lower lip and he has to remind himself to focus on what she’s saying. “I keep thinking that this is so familiar. Like you’re familiar. I know we barely know each other, but I feel like I’ve known you forever.”

She flushes, as if she suddenly realizes what she’s saying, and adds, “Sorry I’m being weird.” She begins to pull away from him.

“No.” He tightens his arms around her. “You’re right. I feel it too.”

He leans forward and presses his lips to the smooth column of her neck. He can feel her silent moan vibrate against him, her hands pressing him closer, and her fingers threading through his hair. He tastes her skin and allows his hands to travel up her back. She tugs him back with the hand in his hair and he almost wants to complain, but she pulls him up to kiss her.

He doesn’t know how long they sit there kissing, with her in his lap and their arms around each other. But when they finally untangle themselves, the sun is high in the sky. Together, they pack away what’s left of breakfast. She laughs when he scarfs down the rest of the fruit and playfully calls him a glutton. He just tells her that he was raised not to waste food.

The hike back to the car is easy, but they can’t seem to stop touching each other. A hand on his shoulder when she looses her balance, an arm around her waist to help her down from a high step. He captures her hand in his and they spend the last leg of the hike holding hands.

When he drops her off at the dig house, she turns to him, her green eyes large and sparkling.

“So what are we doing tomorrow?” she asks and he feels like his heart is going to burst with joy.


	5. Chapter 5

Being around Link is the easiest thing in the world. After their magical first date, Zelda sees him every day. On Sunday, he takes her on a hike to see some petroglyphs at the park. The hike itself is challenging, with a lot of climbing and a section where they have to scramble up a steep rock face. Through it all, Link is patient and watchful. He doesn’t assume that she needs help but is always there when she asks for a hand. She appreciates it immensely. When they reach the petroglyphs, he hangs back with a smile as she snaps a million photos and chatters on about the significance of the symbols. He takes her to dinner at a local farm-to-table restaurant. At the end of the night, he drops her off back at the dig house and kisses her breathless against his passenger side door. As she watches him drive away, her face is warm and her cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

On Monday, the site is hectic. Over the weekend, a massive tree branch broke over part of the fence and collapsed a large section of the site. A stressed out Purah had Zelda and the other graduate students hastily cleaning the profile and remapping the damaged squares. It isn’t until the end of the workday that Zelda has any time to really think. As the field team hikes back to the cars, she remembers that Link mentioned he had a shift at the welcome center that afternoon. So she drops the undergrads riding in her car off at the dig house and circles back to the park.

He’s in the middle of talking to some visitors when she approaches the desk. When he spots her, his eyes gleam and he mouths a greeting before turning his attention back to the visitors. He’s (unfortunately) very professional while at work, so she only gets a quick wave of the hand. She sits with him until the end of his shift. She half-heartedly works on some archaeological illustrations, but mostly she just watches him interact with the park visitors. He’s incredibly patient with even the most frustrating and banal questions. She admires the easy set of his shoulders and the friendly smile he keeps plastered on his face while he works. He catches her watching him a few times and always looks away with a flush creeping up his neck. It’s very charming.

After his shift, they grab food from the cafeteria and he takes her to the ranger’s mess hall. He introduces her to his friends. Mipha, a quiet Zora woman, is a childhood friend of Link’s and greets Zelda with a small smile. Daruk, the boisterous Goron, slaps Link on the shoulder and heartily congratulates him when he introduces Zelda, causing Link’s ears to turn a bright red. At this, Revali, who Zelda had met previously, makes a comment to Link that she isn’t able to hear. Whatever it was, it causes Link to shove him away with a glare, which only causes Revali to laugh.

They sit with the group and somehow being around them is almost as easy as being around Link. With them, she doesn’t have to be Serious and Responsible Researcher Zelda, so she’s able to let loose. Daruk is hilarious and his story about an archery competition gone wrong between Link and Revali causes Zelda to laugh so hard tears form in her eyes. As she wipes the tears way, Link catches her hand and gives her a wry smile. The feeling of his hand on hers warms her so she laces her fingers through his and drops their joined hands under the table.

Zelda hangs out with them for a few hours. When she leaves, Link walks her to her car and asks her to text him to let him know she got back safe. He also tells her that his shift ends a bit earlier the next day, so if she wanted to go for a hike, he could show her some nice trails.

She says okay to both. The goodbye kiss is chaste, a press of his lips on hers, but excitement tingles down to her toes anyway. When she gets back to the dig house, she brushes off Jerrin’s inquisitive look and heads straight to her room.

The next day they go on a hike. They learn more and more about each other. She tells him about how she needs to be successful in academia to prove to her politician father that she made the right choices in life. He tells her about how he works at an outdoor supplies cooperative store in Castletown during the offseason because he’s only got part time hours at the park and how he wishes he could work full time at the park year-round. She smiles and tells him that Castletown is where the main campus of Hyrule University is. Throughout the hike, tucked away in little alcoves hidden by trees, they make out, giggling like teenagers.

The day after that, he shows her how to make tacos over a campfire. He tells her that he never made a ton of friends growing up because his father was in the military so they moved around a lot. He tells her that the two years spent in the Zora Domain were some of the happiest of his childhood because of the true friendship he found with Mipha. She tells him that her mother passed away when she was very, very young and how it was so hard to grow up without a mom. They lick salsa off their fingers and hold each other tight. She’s never felt so close to another person.

And the day after that, she comes back to the park after sunset and he takes her to a beautiful stargazing spot and points out the stars that make up the Hero’s Sword and Goddess’s Gaze.

They’re laying in the grass and he has his head propped up with one hand to look at her when he says. “Tomorrow is Friday.”

She mirrors his position and responds. “Any big weekend plans?”

He grabs her other hand and holds it between them. He’s very tactile with his affection, she notices. He plays with the tips of her fingers, thinking.

“How about I bring you lunch at the site?” he asks.

She clenches her hand involuntarily, imagining the scene it would make at the site. Jerrin would make a ridiculous fuss, Symin would give her his silent judgmental look, and Purah would— no, it would be better for him not to come by the site.

She forces her fingers to relax. “Oh, I don’t know. It’s really hectic at the site and I wouldn’t be able to spend any time with you. We only have a short break for lunch anyway.” And it’s true, the field team only really has half an hour to scarf down lunch. “It’s too much of a hassle.”

He looks a bit disappointed but doesn’t say anything.

“How about I meet you after I’m done at the site?” She pulls his hand closer to her. “I saw a recipe online for peach and blackberry camp cake that you can make over a campfire. Since it’s Friday night, we could stay up late stargazing and eat cake!”

His expression softens and he nods. He releases her hand and draws her in by the hip. She scoots closer and tucks herself under his chin. She breathes in the smell of him. She just wants to be present in the moment. But she can feel the tension in his body and senses his mind still running.

“If you want to learn about the site, we could go to the field museum.” she mumbles into his chest.

“Hmm?” He draws back a little to look down at her.

“I said we could go to the field museum on Saturday, if you want to know more about the site.”

“Yeah.” he says, dropping a kiss into her hair. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

Their Friday night date is, unsurprisingly, perfect. The sky is clear, and their cakes turn out well, if a little sweet, and their kisses are peach flavored. They swap stories about their childhoods. Link explains that he wanted to become a park ranger as a kid because he thought they were superheroes like the Power Rangers, but when he found out what they actually did, he wanted to do that even more. She tells him about the time Urbosa came to her bring your parent to school day because her father was away and when Urbosa told her classmates she was a park ranger, they thought _she_ was a superhero.

On Saturday, she picks him up from his cabin. He looks a bit more dressed up than usual, with his forest green flannel buttoned up and tucked into dark jeans. When she mentions it to him, he rubs the back of his neck in what she recognizes now as a nervous gesture, so she doesn’t push him on it.

Zelda’s actually very excited to show Link the museum. She’d excavated one of the ancient shields that is on display back when she was just starting out at the site. She pulls him through the various exhibits at the museum, explaining the contextual information for the different artifacts on display. They’re standing in front of the ancient shield she found and she’s in the middle of telling him the story of its discovery when a voice calls out behind her.

“Zelda?”

She turns and spots Symin.

“Symin!” she takes an instinctive step away from Link. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m just here to analyze some maps from the archives. What are you doing here? I figured you’d be sick of this place.” His eyes flick to Link and understanding washes over his face. “Oh! Are you—”

“No!” Zelda interrupts. “No, this is Park Ranger Link. He was helping me with after hours documentation last week, so I wanted to show him the material that we’ve found at the site and the research that we’re doing.”

Symin looks at the two of them, clearly not believing her. “If you say so.”

“I do.” she says firmly. Symin isn’t the type to gossip, but what she does in her non-working hours is her own business. She turns stiffly to Link. “Shall we?”

Link looks at her strangely but nods and follows her as she leads them to the other room. As they exit the room, she calls over her shoulder to Symin. “I’ll see you back at the house.”

The door swings shut behind them with a soft click. Link slowly blows out a breath of air.

“What?” she asks.

“That was awkward.”

“Sorry, yeah,” she shrugs apologetically. “I just didn’t want him to go back to the dig house and start telling everyone.”

“Telling them what? That you brought me to a museum?”

“No! Just…you know, I don’t want him to spread rumors about us.”

He clearly doesn’t know. “What kind of rumors? Like we’re seeing each other? Isn’t that true?”

“No— yes— ugh.” She tries to figure out how to explain to him that she doesn’t want to be known as the girl with the fieldwork romance. That, to be taken seriously, women in archaeology have to be professional but not cold, friendly but not too friendly, and certainly cannot get a reputation of getting distracted in the field. But it’s all so complicated and frustrating to explain, so she says, “Archaeologists are a bunch of horrible gossips and I just want to keep you to myself for a bit.”

He looks like he doesn’t quite understand and opens his mouth to say something. But before he can, she steps forward and winds her arms around his torso. He’s distracted enough to let her press her lips to the pulse of his neck, right where she knows he likes it. He relaxes into her embrace.

“Come on,” she murmurs, lips brushing his neck. “I’ll show you the rest of the museum and then we can get lunch at that barbecue place that you recommended.”

When she pulls back, he still has a slightly unsettled look in his eyes, but he lets her take his hand and lead him to the next exhibit anyway.

* * *

Zelda is probably the most incredible woman Link has ever met. She’s just so smart and passionate. He knows he’s completely smitten but even the teasing from Daruk and Revali don’t get to him. She just has a way of lighting up any room she walks in to and he will probably never cease being impressed by her. He’s been learning more and more about her and each new thing he learns makes him like her even more.

Occasionally, he worries about what exactly this all means. When they’re together, she seems as taken with him as he is with her. And yet, she never lets him visit her at the site. On top of that, the incident at the museum nips at the back of his mind. But all his doubts seem inconsequential when he thinks about the warmth of her smile, the mischievous gleam in her eyes, and how good she feels next to him.

They continue to hang out when her workday is over. Some days they play board games and cards with the other rangers, other days they trek around the park alone. He loves introducing her to secret spots throughout the park and basking in her delight. One night they time the hike badly and the sun sets before they manage to get back on the trail. He shows her how to estimate their route based on their last known location and the position of the stars sparkling overhead. She seems impressed by his ability to navigate the woods.

That weekend is officially the halfway point of the summer season so Link invites Zelda to the ranger’s annual beach bonfire party. She’s a bit apprehensive at first, worried about intruding, but he assures her that all the other rangers bring people along too. She agrees with a smile and offers to bring along some hot dogs to share.

He picks her up in the late afternoon on Saturday for the bonfire. She’s dressed in a simple t-shirt and shorts, with her hair up in a messy bun and he almost crashes the car a handful of times trying to sneak glances at her. Dressed like this, she looks like she belongs in his world in a way that she doesn’t when she’s dressed up or wearing her field clothes. She looks real. Human. Not just the dazzling and brilliant researcher that she is. He flexes his fingers against the steering wheel a few times and reminds himself to keep it together.

They arrive at the beach as others are beginning to trickle in as well. Urbosa is there, standing by the picnic table where people are setting their food and drink offerings. Ever the chief, she delegates tasks to various other rangers as they arrive and keeps an eye on the growing pile of refreshments and snacks.

“Urbosa!” Zelda nearly launches herself at the Gerudo woman.

“Zelda!” A smile lights up Urbosa’s face as she returns the enthusiastic hug and she says. “Little bird, I was hoping you’d be here.”

“Link invited me.” She gestures at him standing slightly behind her.

He nods his greeting at Urbosa, who smiles back at him with a twinkle in her eye. Zelda sets the bag of hot dogs and buns down on the table and turns to Urbosa.

“How are you? I feel like I don’t get to see you enough.” Zelda says.

Link decides to give Zelda and Urbosa a moment alone to catch up. He places one hand on Zelda’s waist to get her attention and says. “I’ll let you have your moment. I’m gonna go help set up.”

She squeezes him around the waist with one arm in acknowledgement but continues her conversation with Urbosa. On her part, Urbosa watches their exchange with a raised brow and gives Link an amused smirk when he departs.

Link makes himself busy, dragging large chunks of driftwood to the growing pile and setting up a firepit. A couple other rangers bring coolers and camping chairs, so he helps them unload those. He wanders by the refreshment table to snag himself a drink and spots Zelda still in lively conversation with Urbosa. He smiles at the enthusiastic gesturing of her hands as she talks. _Cute_.

Drink in hand, he takes a seat by the fire pit and puts himself to work starting the fire. He begins by making a little nest with the kindling. When he’s satisfied with the shape and size of the nest, he pulls out a knife and a chunk of flint from his pocket. He’s in the middle of scraping flint shavings into the kindling when Zelda comes over. She takes a seat next to him and watches him work.

“What are you doing?” she asks after a moment.

“Starting a fire.” he says.

“Yes, I see that.” she huffs. “But I meant with the scraping.”

“Oh. The flint shavings and the dry grass are kindling to start the fire.” he explains.

“And then after this you do the thing?” She mimics the action of striking flint.

He laughs. “Yeah, the thing.” He hands her his flint and knife. “Here, you can try it.”

She eyes the knife nervously. “I don’t know…I’ve never done this before.”

“Now’s the time to learn.” He demonstrates the action of striking flint without actually doing it. “You just have to scrape down at the right angle and it should spark.”

She takes the flint from him and investigates it. “Oh! This is kind of like lighting a Bunsen burner.” That seems to give her confidence.

She swipes at the flint with the knife, but nothing happens.

“You have to apply more pressure.” He tells her.

She tries again and the flint sparks. With a yelp, she drops the flint.

“Don’t do that.” he says wryly.

She sticks her tongue out at him and picks the flint back up again. “Just got caught by surprise!”

She strikes the flint a few more times before it sparks again.

“Now you just have to angle it so that the sparks fall into the nest of kindling that I built.”

She concentrates on the angle, the tip of her tongue sticking out a little. After a few swipes, the sparks catch and the kindling lights up. She jumps back and turns to him and exclaims. “I did it!”

He can’t help but plant a kiss on her cheek, she’s too damn cute. “You sure did.”

He takes over the fire, slowly adding larger and larger pieces of wood until it gets to a respectable size. Zelda helps him pick the pieces of wood to feed into the fire. When he sits back, happy with the size of the flame, he feels her cuddle up next to him. She rests her head on his shoulder and instinctively, he wraps his arm around her waist.

“We make a good team.” she says.

He plants kiss on the top of her head. “We sure do.”

They sit in silence for a few moments, watching the fire, before Link’s stomach grumbles loudly.

Zelda laughs. “Now’s a good time for those hotdogs.”

Link rubs the back of his neck, embarrassed, but hops to his feet to grab the hot dogs and buns. On his way back to the fire, he is called over by a fellow ranger who is trying to move another picnic table over so that there is more space for refreshments. He drops the hotdog supplies off with Zelda and tells her that he has to go help move some tables. She waves him off with a smile and tells him that she’ll start roasting hotdogs so he can eat when he’s done.

When he sits back down next to Zelda, she hands him two roasted hotdogs. He frowns and hands one back to her so they can eat together. Halfway through his hot dog, another ranger comes up to him and tells him that they got the frisbee stuck in a tree. Since Link is the best climber out of all of them, could he please go get it for them? Link gives Zelda an apologetic look, but she just laughs and tells him to go perform his heroic duties.

He shoves the rest of the hotdog into his mouth and sets off for the tree. He manages to scale it quickly and retrieves the frisbee to a chorus of cheers from his fellow rangers. When he drops down from the tree, he looks up to see Zelda watching him from her spot by the fire.

Upon his return, Zelda hands him another hotdog. He eats it gratefully.

“You know, I think…” her voice is thoughtful.

But before he can find out what Zelda thinks, he is accosted by a tearful Mipha, who is frantically looking for her kid brother, Sidon. He shoots up and turns to Zelda, opening his mouth to apologize for the interruption but she just shoos him away.

“Go help Mipha find her brother!” she tells him. “I’ll wait for you here.”

They find Sidon hidden behind a cluster of rocks, knee deep in water. Mipha sweeps him up, relieved, and scolds him for running off without telling her. She thanks Link for his help and he just smiles and squeezes her hand. He pats Sidon on the head and tells him to stay with his sister.

He sees Zelda watching him again, as he makes his way back to the fire. He wonders what she’s thinking and feels bad for repeatedly abandoning her. He drops to his seat next to her and she turns to him.

“Thanks Link.” she says.

He blinks in surprise. “Thanks?” he echoes. “For what?”

“Just…” She seems to be at a loss for words, which is unlike her. “Just thanks for everything. You’re so kind and good and you could be spending time with anybody and you choose to spend time with me. So thanks.”

He looks at her. Someone as incredible as her? She’s the one that could be spending time with anybody. She’s the one that chooses to spend time with him, not the other way around.

“I’m sorry I was such a jerk to you when we first met,” she mumbles after a moment. “You’ve always been nicer to me than I deserved.”

He laughs at this. “Zel, you deserve more than anything I could give you.”

“Ha! Says the most perfect man in the world.” Her hands shoot up to cover her mouth, as if she can’t believe she just said that.

Link doesn’t know what to say, as he is certainly not the most perfect man in the world. They both glance away from each other. He meant what he said, but it was probably a bit much for her. She clearly didn’t mean what she said because she’s fidgeting with her fingers, the way she does when she feels awkward.

After a moment, he pulls out a bag of marshmallows from his bag. “I brought ingredients for s’mores.” he tells her, hoping to break to weird atmosphere.

“Ooh!” she reaches for the marshmallows and skewers excitedly, eager to move on. “I love roasting marshmallows.”

They’re both happy to put the moment behind them. They sit side by side, roasting the marshmallows. She’s extremely meticulous in her technique; she lets each side roast for a few moments before pulling it back out and inspecting it carefully. The resulting marshmallow is perfectly golden brown on all sides and she proudly sandwiches it between the graham crackers and chocolate before devouring it.

Link, on the other hand, is doing an abysmal job at roasting his marshmallows. He keeps getting distracted watching her smile and the way the firelight shines off her golden hair, so his marshmallows keep burning. When she licks chocolate off her fingers after eating one of the s’mores, he leans so far towards her that his marshmallow drops into the fire completely.

“Link!” she scolds him. “You’re not paying enough attention,” she takes his stick from him and skewers a new marshmallow. “Here.”

She hands him the stick and licks the sugar off her fingers again. The action is so tempting that he feels like he might explode if he doesn’t kiss her. She notices him watching her and not roasting his marshmallow.

“What?” she asks.

“Zelda,” his voice is low and husky. “can I kiss you?”

She meets his eyes and she must see the hunger and want in them because her eyelids droop a little and she licks her lips. “Yes.”

He drops the skewered marshmallow to the floor without a second thought and reaches for her. He draws her in with both hands on her jaw, fingers threading into her hair. There’s a ferocity in this kiss that he hadn’t experienced before. She responds to his enthusiasm with her own, her hands running across his chest, abdomen, back. When she pulls back for air, he presses his mouth to her jaw, tasting the smoke of the fire on her skin. Her breath hitches and one of her hands fist in his hair. He moves downward, lavishing her clavicle with attention where it peeks through the collar of her shirt.

There’s a loud wolf whistle and they pull apart. “Atta boy, Link!” someone hoots at him.

Zelda blushes, her entire face turning a bright red. Link can feel his ears warm up.

“Sorry,” he mutters, eyes fixed on the ground in front of him “they’re just being dicks.”

When she doesn’t respond, he looks over at her. She’s looking down at her lap, where she’s fidgeting with her fingers. She seems to come to some sort of decision because she raises her head to meet his eyes.

“Do you…” her voice comes out breathy and his stomach clenches. “Do you want to come over?”

He swallows, his mind buzzing with energy.

She seems to take his lack of an immediate response the wrong way. “I just mean that I don’t have to share my room with anyone and it’s getting a bit late and I’m really, really enjoying being around you and I was wondering if you wanted—”

He brushes the pad of his thumb gently across her lips, silencing her. Her eyes meet his and he can see the flickering reflection of fire in her green eyes. He nods, not trusting himself to speak.

At his agreement, the nervous energy drains out of her, replaced by something heated and hungry. She threads her fingers through his and pulls him to the car. They half-stumble along the path, so wrapped up in each other that it’s difficult to pay attention.

Link barely remembers the drive to the dig house. For once, they don’t talk, the energy between them charged and intense. Their eyes meet a few times and he’s reminded of the way the flint sparked when it was struck. He parks his car in the lot around the corner from the dig house and barely has time to lock his car before she grabs him. She plants a hungry kiss on his lips and pulls him along.

At the front door, he stands behind her as she looks for her key. He presses a kiss to the back of her neck, causing her to fumble and nearly drop the key. She gives him a look over her shoulder that nearly undoes him and tugs him through the doorway. She leads him up a flight of stairs and he can hear laughter and chatter on the second floor, but she continues up the stairs.

“Come on,” she whispers impatiently, “my room is up this way.”

He follows her eagerly. When she pulls him into her room, he doesn’t have any time to look around before she presses him against the door, sealing her lips against his. He groans at the feeling of her body firmly against his. Their movements are wild and needy. He feels like his body is on fire. He flips them around so that he has her against the door, his arms bracketing at the sides of her head. Her hands scrabble at him, drawing him in by his belt loops until his groin presses against her core.

He hisses at the friction and she wraps one leg behind him to keep him there. He grabs at her leg to steady her. The way she’s moving against him is causing his mind to slow, but he manages to draw away from her.

“Zel—Zelda, wait,” he pants, “are you—are you sure?”

She looks at him, eyes hooded, lips swollen. She drops her leg and he releases her automatically and steps back. Without breaking eye contact with him, she reaches down and tugs her t-shirt over her head. His mouth drops open as she slides out of her shorts, leaving her clad in just her underwear. She makes her way over to her bed and looks back at him.

“Are you coming?” she asks.

He yanks his shirt off his back and all but dives in after her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Does this chapter merit a ratings change? I'm not sure, so I would appreciate it you could let me know what you think!
> 
> 2\. I rewrote the first section of the first chapter because I really didn't like the initial version, so I would also appreciate feedback on it if you lovely readers would be so inclined.


	6. Chapter 6

Zelda wakes up to the early morning sunlight filtering through her window and the feeling of a warm body curled up next to hers. Blinking the residual sleep out of her eyes, she looks up to find Link still sleeping, his hair splayed out on the pillow, mixing with hers. Their shins are lightly touching, and she can feel the soft exhales of his breath against her cheeks. He has an arm thrown over her waist, his palm warm against her bare skin.

His expression is peaceful as he sleeps. She traces the panes of his face with her eyes, noting the line of his nose, the smattering of freckles on his cheeks, and the spot under his jaw where he missed shaving. His lips are slightly parted as he breathes. For someone who doesn’t say a lot, he is certainly _talented_ with that mouth. Her toes curl at the memory.

She cuddles in closer to him, inhaling his woodsy smell of him, and her body tingles with the memories of the night before. His arm tightens around her for a moment before relaxing and she feels safe in the circle of his arms. She marvels at the feeling. She’s never been one of those people that believed in soulmates or fate, but there’s something comforting about him that she can’t explain. His kind patience and near heroic drive to help others inspires her to be better. She cringes a little as she remembers how she misjudged him when they first met.

After a moment, she raises a hand to trace a light scar that extends down his right arm. Now, in the light of day, she can see the marks that his outdoors lifestyle has left on him. His shoulders are healing from a slight sunburn, and his arms are covered with scratches.

Her touch seems to awaken him and when he opens his eyes, he smiles sleepily at her. She can’t help but return his dopey smile as he laces his fingers through hers and presses a kiss to her knuckles. The moment feels soft and fuzzy, like a dust mote floating in a ray of sunlight.

“Good morning,” he says softly, “how did you sleep?”

“Fine,” she tells him with a playful smile, “and you?”

He raises an eyebrow at her. “Just fine?” He pulls her closer with a hand on her hip and slips his knees between hers. “I slept great.”

She’s very aware that they’re both completely naked under the covers and she can feel the indicator of his interest hard against her thigh. But she’s also aware that the field team is probably going to be awakening shortly and if they don’t get up soon, there will be some awkward encounters. And yet she doesn’t quite want this moment to end.

Instead, she turns her attention to the scar she was examining earlier. She pulls his hand up and strokes the scar on his inner forearm. “How’d you get this?” she asks him.

He looks down at her fingers tracing the long scar and says, “A climbing accident in college. Missed a grab and scraped it bad against a jagged ledge.”

She looks at it more closely, the scar is fading, but the skin is still slightly raised. “What were you climbing?”

“Dueling Peaks,” he tells her with a hint of a smirk, because they both know that Dueling Peaks is one of the most dangerous climbs in the park. “I think Revali dared me to.”

She laughs. He’s ridiculous. She rolls away from him and stretches. “We should get up.” she says to him.

His eyes follow the length of her body hungrily as she stretches, but he nods. He slips out of bed and finds the shirt that he discarded haphazardly on the floor the night before. He meets her eyes with a grin before putting his shirt back on. He stands there, framed by the light filtering through her window, as he pulls his hair back into his regular ponytail. Something about the sky blue of his shirt resonates with her. Like a half-formed memory from another life, it makes her think of snow-white horses, Divine beasts, and blessings that are also curses. She blinks and the moment is over. Shaking her head, she wonders where those strange, fanciful thoughts came from.

She follows him out of bed and picks through her dresser for fresh clothes. She grabs her hairbrush and attempts to tame what she knows is probably very obvious Sex Hair. After a few swipes, she gives up and tosses it up in a ponytail instead. She turns to see him watching her, a contented look on his face.

“Do you want breakfast?” she asks him.

“Are you offering to make me breakfast?” he responds with a smile.

“No,” she says, scrunching up her nose, “I want eggs Benedict and we don’t have ingredients for a Hollandaise here.”

He laughs lightly. “You’re such a princess.” he tells her.

She sticks her tongue out at him and takes his hand. “Come on.”

She opens the door slightly and pokes her head out. It’s early enough on a Sunday morning that the others are still asleep, so the coast is clear. She exits her room quickly and pulls him along behind her. They manage to make it all the way to his car without running into anybody on the field team.

“Phew,” she says, “I think everyone else was up late drinking last night, so they’re probably sleeping off hangovers.”

He drops her hand and she turns to look at him. His face is shuttered and carefully neutral; an expression that she hasn’t seen from him in a while. Something is bothering him.

“What’s wrong?” she asks.

He narrows his eyes at her. “What was that about?” he responds.

“What was what about?”

His neutral expression dissolves and his brows knit together in disbelief. “You know,” he nods tersely in the direction of the dig house, “the sneaking around and the secrecy.”

She stiffens her shoulders a little. Oh, _that_. After a magical morning like they had, she doesn’t want to bring down the mood with a discussion on sexism in academia. Especially to an outsider who doesn’t know the institutional structures.

“I just didn’t want anyone to see me and judge me. I don’t want that reputation.” She says.

“Judge you?” he repeats, hurt creeping into his voice. “Reputation? What reputation? For being with me?”

“No!” she exclaims, grabbing his hands. “No! It’s not you. You’re wonderful. Perfect. More than I deserve.”

He eyes her suspiciously and she pushes on.

“It’s not you,” she promises, “It’s just that women in academia have to be professional at all times or we aren’t taken seriously, so I want to keep my personal and professional life separate.”

He calms down a bit and his shoulders loosen slightly. He studies her face and she hopes that he can see the earnestness in her expression.

“I promise.” She says, squeezing his hand. “It’s not about you. I like you a lot. It’s me. I just don’t want people talking about me, okay?”

He relaxes at her assurances, but the corners of his mouth are still turned slightly down. She hates that the morning has already been tainted with misunderstanding and hurt feelings.

He pauses, processing her words. After a moment, he gives her a small, crooked smile. “Okay.” he says.

Her heart leaps in her chest, glad that he finally understands. She drops a kiss to his lips and gives him a sly smile. “Besides, if people find out that you can do that _thing_ with your tongue, I’ll never have any peace.”

He gives her a scandalized look and grabs at her, but she dances out of his reach and climbs into the passenger side of his Forester instead, laughing.

“Come on!” she calls to him, “I want to get my eggs Benedict! I need my morning tea!”

He rolls his eyes in mock irritation as he settles behind the wheel. “As you wish, princess.”

Breakfast is good. Zelda is eager to put the morning’s misunderstanding behind them and Link, for his part, seems to let it go as well. They split an eggs Benedict because when they were ordering, Zelda suddenly realizes that they had a fruit covered Belgian waffle that she also wants to try. Link orders the eggs so that she can have both.

They spend the rest of Sunday together. It’s a lazy, relaxed day, so they curl up together on the small couch in his cabin and watch a wildlife documentary on his laptop. Revali walks in part of the way through the movie, spots them cuddling, makes a noise of disgust and leaves. Zelda can’t help but laugh and when they run into him later at the mess hall, she tells him that he’s welcome to join them for the movie next time. After dinner, Link drops her off at the dig house and kisses her so ardently that she almost wants to invite him in again. But Monday is a work day for both of them, so she doesn’t.

* * *

Purah calls her over first thing Monday morning.

“Zelda, do you have the site reconstruction data ready?” Purah asks.

 _Oops_. She’d been spending so much time with Link these last few weeks that she completely forgot that she told Purah that she would have the data processed last week.

“No, sorry. I haven’t had time to work on it yet.” she tells Purah guiltily.

Purah fixes her with a questioning look, “You got the last of your photos over two weeks ago, no?”

Zelda feels herself redden with embarrassment, “Yes, sorry. I guess I’ve been distracted.”

“Look, I understand that what happened with the Yiga a few weeks ago must have been very traumatic for you and if you need to talk to someone about it, I encourage you to do so. But we’re on a timeline here. The field season is almost done and you haven’t shown me the work that you told me you would get done.” Purah says to her, not unkindly.

“It’s…It’s not the Yiga incident.” Zelda admits, “I just haven’t worked on it yet.”

Purah frowns at her and, all at once, Zelda remembers that this is Dr. Purah, badass woman in science and trowelblazer extraordinaire, who took a chance on Zelda as a graduate student. She cannot let her down. It makes what Purah says next sting even more.

“It’s not my place to dictate what you do with your time when you’re not working on site, but I’ve noticed that you’re not around the dig house a lot. Some of the undergrads have noticed you leaving frequently and asked me if they can do the same.” Purah’s frown deepens, “I can’t believe I have to remind you of this since you’ve always been one of my best and most focused students, but a field season isn’t a vacation. It’s still work.”

Purah’s words crash down on Zelda like a cold shower. She feels the shame wash over her.

“Yes,” she stammers, “yes of course it’s still work. I’m sorry. I can’t believe I let myself get distracted. I’ll get the data to you tomorrow night.”

Purah’s expression softens a little and she says. “It doesn’t have to be that soon. Just make sure you are getting your work done.”

“I will.”

Zelda makes her way back to her site technician station and sits down stiffly. Her mind is whirling. She can’t believe that she got so swept up in Link that she completely lost sight of her goals. Her ears still burn with shame at Purah’s reprimand. She didn’t spend five years in graduate school to throw it away for a summer romance. This is the wakeup call she needed.

She spends the rest of the workday berating herself for letting things get this far. She should have known better than to get involved with someone during the field season. There’s a reason why she’s always set boundaries between herself and the people she works with. This is what happens. _This is what happens!_

By the end of the day, she’s worked herself up to a bit of a manic level. When they get back to the dig house, she locks herself in her room and begins to write the speech she is going to give Link. She knows that she can’t let this continue. Being around him is amazing, but it’s also a huge distraction. She doesn’t have time for distractions.

She rewrites her speech half a dozen times before it’s passable. She shoves the notes into her bag and makes her way back to the park. She pulls up in the lot behind the ranger’s mess hall and takes a few deep breaths before getting out of the car.

The lights in the hall are somehow brighter and more jarring than usual. Link spots her as she comes in and makes his way over to her.

“Hey, there you are. I was wondering when you were gonna come by.” His smile is warm and sweet and her heart cracks a little. He notices her distress and his brows pinch together in concern. “Are you okay?” he asks.

She shakes her head. “Can we talk for a bit? Alone?”

Panic floods his expression. “Yeah. Yeah of course.”

He leads her out of the mess hall and to a path leading away from the parking lot. They take a few steps so that they’re out of view of the hall and he turns to face her.

“Zelda?” His voice is worried. “What’s wrong?”

She thinks about grabbing the notes for the speech that she spent the last hour writing, but somehow that doesn’t feel right. She tries to conjure up the right words to say to him, but nothing is coming to mind.

“I think we should stop seeing each other.” she blurts out instead.

His eyes widen in surprise. “What?”

“I said,” she wrings her hands together, “I think we should stop seeing each other.” She looks away from him because she can’t stand to look at the hurt in his blue eyes.

He exhales loudly and says, “Is this because of what I said yesterday? Because it’s fine. I don’t care if you want to keep things on the down-low.”

“No,” she says, still not looking at him, “it’s not because of yesterday. I just…I just realized that it’s not working for me.”

“It’s not working?” His voice rises incredulously. Her eyes shoot back to him, she’s never heard him raise his voice. “What do you mean it’s not working?”

“It’s just—I just—” she struggles to come up with the words. _By the Goddesses_ , why couldn’t she remember a single word of the speech she wrote? “We’re just too different. We’re on different trajectories in our lives. I want to get my doctoral degree and rise through academic rankings and you— you just want a full-time job.”

He reels back as if she slapped him.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” she adds on, hurriedly, “It’s just really different from what I’m working towards and so I figured it’s better that we put an end to things now before we get too invested.”

“You mean so that you don’t have to waste your energy investing in a part-time park ranger.” He says bitterly.

“No!” Her frustration is mounting, she wishes he would stop looking so angry. “I just don’t think we’re looking for the same things.”

“How would you know?” His hand clench and unclench at his sides. “You never asked me.”

She throws her hands up, “How can this possibly end? You have your own life and I have mine! I mean, it was never meant to be a long-term thing anyway. I have so many things to accomplish. Women like me in academia don’t—”

“Women like you don’t end up with men like me.”

“That’s not what I was going to say!”

“It might as well have been.”

“No! I was just trying to be realistic. It’s hard for women in academia. Hard enough without rumors of a summer fling.”

“Summer fling.” he repeats, his voice, flat and hurt.

“Link, please.” She’s desperate for him to understand. For him to stop looking at her like she just crushed his heart beneath her foot. “These last few weeks have been really fun, but I—”

“Fun.” His eyes are icy and foreign to her. “That’s all this has been for you.”

She wants to yell, scream, tear her hair out. She does none of these things. She slumps her shoulders and drops her gaze.

“I don’t know what you want me to say.” She’s usually so good with words, but none of her words seem to be reaching him. “I just can’t do this anymore. I have to focus on my work. I can’t be distracted.”

He just looks at her and, for the first time in a long time, she has no idea what he’s thinking. His blank expression sends daggers through her heart and her chest aches. She wants to reach for him, let him hold her and pretend that this entire horrible discussion never happened, but she knows that she can’t.

“So that’s it then.” His voice is tight and controlled. “We’re done.”

She gives him a sad smile. “I’m sorry.”

He holds her gaze for another moment before shaking his head. His shoulders drop a little and he puts on his hat. Before he leaves, he tips his cap at her without meeting her eyes. The stupid hat tip reminds her of their first meeting, and it makes her want to laugh and cry at the same time, but no sounds come out of her. Then he’s gone and she’s just standing on the path alone.

She turns on her heel and sprints to her car as fast as she can, her tears blurring her vision. She makes it into her car and manages to lock the doors before the dam breaks. She slumps against her steering wheel and cries and cries and cries.


	7. Chapter 7

Link is having a bad time.

There’s no two ways about it. It’s been a tough couple of days since that night when Zelda came by the mess hall and ended things between them. When he came back into the mess hall after his talk with Zelda, his expression must have given him away, because Mipha had immediately come to his side in concern. He didn’t have the words or the capacity to explain what had happened, but everyone was able to guess. They’d all seen Zelda come in and pieced two and two together.

In a way, he feels like he should have seen this coming. There is no way that a woman like her, someone so driven, passionate, and amazing is going to end up with a regular guy like him. What does he really have to offer her anyway? She’s so smart and educated that he wouldn’t have been able to keep up with her in the long run. So maybe she was right to do what she did.

But it doesn’t mean it hurts any less.

It feels ridiculous that he can be this miserable over a woman he has known for a month and yet here he is. He tries to throw himself into his work, but his heart isn’t in it. At night, all he can think about is her. Her smile, her laugh, the mischievous sparkle in her eyes, the way she liked to dig her fingers into his back when they hugged. His traitorous mind replays their dates, over and over, until he feels sick with loneliness.

The first few nights, he goes over each of those memories with a fine-toothed comb, trying to figure out where exactly he went wrong. To find out what exactly it was that he did that made her not want him anymore. He makes up a hundred different reasons, but they all distill down to one: he’s not enough for someone like her.

She must have known that, right from the start, because she was always ashamed of being seen with him. Now that things are over, the memory of the museum stings even more. Even thoughts of that amazing night they spent together is spoiled by the argument that came after. She just saw him as a summer fling. A distraction until he got to be too much.

It’s his own fault for getting so attached to her so quickly. The intensity of his fondness for her surprised even himself. He’d dated a little in college and somehow those breakups pale in comparison with the hollowness he feels now.

His friends tiptoe around him, deliberately gentle with him in a way that makes him want to scream. Revali has miraculously stopped making snarky comments about him, Daruk is always looking at him with a sympathetic expression, and Mipha constantly asks him if he needs anything. What he really needs is for things to go back to normal. Or things to go back what they were before he met Zelda.

They’re hanging out in the mess hall on Friday night. Since it’s the weekend, Link decides to break out the bottle of whiskey that he had sitting in his bottom drawer. Over the mess hall speakers, someone is playing the latest album by Utano, the Shiekah singer. His smooth voice croons about love found and love lost, and it feels too on the nose for Link. He pours himself a few fingers of whiskey and half-heartedly tries to make conversation with his friends. The drink is emptying faster than he expected though, because he takes a sip every time he thinks about Zelda, trying to use the burn of the liquor to distract himself. He keeps refilling his glass and so by late evening, he’s well and truly drunk.

Mipha pries his glass away with gentle hands and says. “I think you’ve had enough.”

“M’fine.” he mumbles with forehead against the table, but he doesn’t really mean it. He feels sloshed.

“Revali,” he hears Mipha’s voice somewhere over his head, “why don’t you take him back to your cabin.”

He hears an irritated ‘tsk’ and feels a tug on his right arm. With some effort (and Revali’s assistance), he pulls himself up to standing with one arm draped over the Rito’s shoulders.

They walk back to the cabin slowly. Revali doesn’t say anything, which surprises Link, because he would have thought that his rival would like to see him taken down a peg.

Instead, Revali says to him. “You don’t need to be like this.”

“Like what.”

Revali rolls his eyes. “You don’t have to mope around like this over some chick.”

“She’s not just some chick.” Link mutters.

“She’s some woman you’ve known for a month. There are other people out there. You’ve always been popular with women.”

Link just shakes his head. He doesn’t know how to explain the depth of their connection. Like they’ve known each other in previous lifetimes. Saying stuff like that out loud makes it sound insane, so he doesn’t.

“Well,” Revali shifts Link’s arm on his shoulder, “I don’t know what happened. But if she’s that big of a deal to you, maybe you should just talk to her.”

Link makes a noise of annoyance but doesn’t say anything back. They walk in silence for a few more moments before they’re back at the cabin. Link turns to face Revali.

“What?” Revali raises a brow, “Do you want me to come tuck you in too?”

Link cracks a smile and opens the door. Behind him, he hears Revali say, “Make sure to drink some water. I don’t want to hear you moaning about your hangover in the morning.”

Link waves him off and after a moment he hears footsteps retreating.

He chugs nearly a liter of water before laying down in bed, but it doesn’t make him feel much better. His head still fuzzy so he lays down on his side and pulls out his phone. He pulls up the text message thread between him and Zelda. The last message between them was from him last Saturday before he picked her up, ‘ _Be there in 10_ ’, it reads.

He stares at the message, it’s so mundane. He scrolls up a bit and reads snippets of their last few texts. She’d sent him a recipe for a skillet peach crisp and he’d responded with just a peach emoji. He’d sent her a link to a beginner’s guide to night sky photography and she’d sent him ten exclamation marks. Peppered in between are good morning and good night messages. It’s all just _so_ mundane. He thought that something about these messages might explain why he feels so strongly about her, but the words on the screen don’t seem to hold any magic.

He exits the conversation and his thumb hovers over the delete button. The red button seems to pulse. After a moment, he taps back into the conversation again.

His fingers, seemingly of their own accord, type out a message. ‘ _Hey, how’s it going?_ ” Without a second thought, he sends it.

Delivered, it reads at the bottom of the screen.

He suddenly realizes what he’s done. Why did he just do that? He checks the time, it’s just before midnight, she’s probably about to go to bed. She probably won’t even respond. She might not even read the message. She might have deleted his phone number already and has no idea who is texting her.

But he still grips his phone tightly and stares at his screen anyway.

The minutes tick by and she doesn’t respond. Disappointed and frustrated with himself, he locks his screen, plugs his phone in, and shoves it under his pillow.

* * *

Link awakens the next day to a buzz under his pillow. His head pounds a little and his mouth is dry. Suddenly, he remembers the text he sent Zelda in the middle of the night and he shoots up in bed and scrambles to grab his phone. He deflates when he sees that it is a message from Mipha, asking how he is feeling. He pushes back on the feeling of disappointment and responds, telling her not to worry.

His abrupt movements trigger a spell of hungover vertigo and he has to sit for a minute. He takes the moment to scold himself. Why would he message her in the middle of the night and expect a response? She ended things with him, so, clearly, she doesn’t want to hear from him anymore. He can’t be doing pathetic things like drunk texting a woman he’s hung up on. This isn’t college.

He needs to get busier and take his mind off this. He can’t spend all of Saturday alone.

He remembers that Urbosa usually drops in to her office for a few hours in the middle of the afternoon to post the next week’s schedule. If he heads over now, he could catch her and request extra shifts. Yes, that would be a good idea. Better to be busy.

Mind made up, he stands, throws his clothes on, chugs another liter of water and makes his way to Urbosa’s office.

He manages to run into Urbosa right as she’s entering the building and she seems surprised to see him.

“Link!” she says, “What are you doing here? Don’t you have the day off?”

“Hi. Yeah, I do, but uh,” he rubs the back of his neck, “I was actually wondering if I could get more shifts for next week? Like…tomorrow?”

Urbosa is in the middle of unlocking her office door, but she stops at his words. She turns to peer at him curiously.

“Tomorrow?” she asks, “Shouldn’t you be enjoying your day off? Aren’t you going to be busy?”

“No,” he says, not meeting her eyes, “I don’t have any plans, so I thought it would be better for me to work more.”

He sees her frown and turn around. The door swings open and she steps through. She gestures him in, so he follows.

“Take a seat,” she nods at the chair in front of her desk. “I was actually here to print out this week’s schedule.”

He sits.

Neither of them says anything for a few moments and the only sound in the room is the humming of the computer turning on. He’s very aware of Urbosa studying him, so he keeps his face blank. He’s sure he looks miserable anyway, with his messy hair and hangover pallor.

“Well this was not what I was expecting.” Urbosa says after a moment. Link looks at her, but she’s already turned to her computer and begun typing.

He doesn’t know what to say and isn’t entirely comfortable explaining what happened to his boss slash the godmother of the woman that’s been causing him this distress. So he continues to keep silent.

“Alright,” she finally says. “I’ve changed it around so that you are on for tomorrow afternoon.”

He exhales. “Thank you Chief Urbosa.”

She hums in response and after a few clicks, the printer behind her whirls to life. It spits out a few copies of the schedule for the next week and she grabs them. Looking it over once, she nods and hands a few to Link.

“On your way out, could you please post these for me? One on the bulletin board outside my door and a couple in the mess hall?”

He nods, tucking the schedule under his arm.

As he leaves, Urbosa’s voice stops him. “A word to the wise,” she says, “whatever happened, I think you two should talk about it. She’s very stubborn, but she likes you.”

He feels a rush of irritation, why does everyone tell _him_ that he needs to talk to her when _she_ was the one that ended things between them? He put himself out there for her and she was the one that didn’t want him. He’s the one hurting.

“No,” he says, flexing his fingers against the doorknob. “with all due respect. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

* * *

After that shameful talk with Purah, Zelda vows to never to let herself fall behind again. She pulls out the agenda she’d been neglecting and schedules her time meticulously. Every hour from waking until bed is assigned a task. She processes the photos and compiles the models for Purah within two days. She fishes the ancient Shiekah technologies edited volume that she’s been meaning to read out from her suitcase and dives into it.

Every day after they get back from the site, she sits at one of the tables in the common area and works for two hours until dinner. Then, after dinner, she spends half an hour helping with clean up and retreats to her room. She gives herself half an hour of down time to journal. After that, she exercises for an hour. Some days Jerrin will join her for Yoga, and other days she straps on her sneakers for a run. Zelda hates running, but it does wonders for her mind. It is, after all, very difficult to think about how emotionally miserable you are when your lungs feel like they’re going to collapse. Post-run, she takes a quick shower before climbing into bed. Rinse and repeat.

Zelda becomes a beast of efficiency. She manages to check off every single thing on her summer to-do list within a week of the…talk with Link. That’s how she knows she did the right thing; she wasn’t getting any work done because she’d gotten too distracted and now that the distraction is gone, she’s getting everything done. She knows she should feel some sort of satisfaction with having made the right decision, but she really just feels empty. Even when Purah comments on her good work, she doesn’t feel the sense of pride that she usually does.

Instead, everything just reminds her of Link. She comes across a note in her journal about a meteor shower that Link was going to take her to see and her heart aches. She files away facts that she reads about to share with him before she remembers that she can’t. When something funny happens at the site, she wants to tell him about it because it’ll make him smile. But mostly, she just wonders how he’s doing. If he’s angry at her. If he’s sad. If he thinks about her at all.

She wonders what he would say if she told him that she managed to blaze through all her work within a week. He’d probably tell her that she deserves a night off and show her how to make blueberry pancakes over a campfire. Then she would feed him the leftover blueberries and when they were all gone, he would nip at her fingertips and kiss her palms. His eyes would darken when he draws her in for a kiss. She would wrap her arms around him and card her fingers through his hair. His hands would skim along her sides and settle around her waist. He would press kisses behind her ears so that she could feel his breath, hot and needy. That always gets her going so she would slide her hands under his shirt and—

 _No_. She has to remind herself. She ended things with him because she was getting too distracted. She can’t be thinking things like this. But she does anyway. It’s strange how much she misses him, even though they were only together for a short period of time. But since she was the one that ended things with him, she isn’t allowed to miss him.

She thinks about the text she received from him last Friday night. She was getting ready for bed when her phone buzzed. The message itself was so innocuous, ‘ _Hey how’s it going?_ ’

She stared at the message for longer than she’s willing to admit. She typed out twenty different responses ( _I’m good_ , _I’ve been better_ , _I’m okay_ , _I miss you_ , _I’m sorry for what I did_ ), but none of them seemed right and she didn’t know what he wanted from her. For a moment, she’d imagined the feelings of his arms around her and wanted that so desperately she almost told him. But that wouldn’t have been fair to him because she doesn’t have time for men, even one as spectacular as him. So after laying awake staring at her phone for an hour, she put it away and decided to say nothing at all. Yet that open-ended text lingers at the back of her mind and every few days she pulls it up and her fingers itch to respond.

In an attempt to get her mind off him, she works even harder. She raises the work standards she sets both for herself and for others at the site. She has the excavators tidy their squares until their edges are within one millimetre of the measurements. She obsessively interrogates the field team when they close out stratigraphic units. She pours over other peoples’ notes, critically assessing the accuracy and detail of the contents.

Through it all, she can feel the team’s rising irritation with her. Some excavators roll their eyes when she makes them check their excavation squares over and over. Jerrin actually snaps at Zelda when she tries to point out that the soil is probably a dark yellowish-brown clay-silt instead of a dark brown clay that she’d written. Symin has to step in and take over supervising the undergraduate students because Zelda keeps telling them to dig faster but be more careful and it’s confusing them.

It isn’t that she isn’t aware of how she’s coming across. She’s been doing field work long enough to know that she’s rubbing people the wrong way. But if she has to give up on someone that makes her happy, she needs to make sure that it’s worth it in the end. She needs her work to be perfect to justify the hurt she knows she inflicted on Link. Mistakes in the field cannot be tolerated.

The field team is just getting back into their work after lunch break on Friday when there is the unmistakable sound of a crumbling profile. The pitter-patter of falling soil and rocks has every senior grad student’s head shooting up in alarm.

“Oh n-no…”

Zelda stands up from her seat and marches over to the voice. Paya is standing a few steps behind her square with her hands over her face.

“What happened?” Zelda demands.

“I…I was just leaning forward to c-clean that back p-profile wall and I must h-have leaned forward t-too much because the wall c-c-collapsed.” Paya’s stutter is more pronounced in her distress.

Zelda looks at the damage. There are loose rocks and sediments piled up near Paya’s feet.

“Great,” Zelda says, clenching her jaw, “now we have to clean up all the stuff you dislodged and everything that could have been found there will be out of its archaeological context.”

Paya shrinks back, her face red with shame. For a moment, Zelda feels bad for making Paya feel bad, but it’s the seventh week of excavations, things like this should _not_ be happening.

“Well what are you waiting for?” she snaps, “Go get a dustpan, a bucket, and a new label, you have to clean up your own messes here. We’re not in kindergarten.” Paya scrambles to follow her instructions. “Goddesses, we’ve been here for two months, haven’t you learned _anything_?” she adds.

Zelda knows Paya hears this comment because her shoulders tremble a bit. Guilty, Zelda looks away and inadvertently makes eye contact with Symin, who only shakes his head at her. She narrows her eyes at him. Who is _he_ to judge her?

She turns away and goes back to her desk. But before she can sit down, Purah calls for her from across the site.

She turns on her heel and marches over to Purah’s desk. “Yes, Purah?”

Purah fixes her with a stern glance over her red rimmed glasses and says. “I don’t know what’s been going on with you, but you can’t be acting like this.”

“Like what?” Zelda says, crossing her arms in front of her, “I’m just trying to make sure that our work is getting done properly.”

Purah gives her another look. “And scolding Paya accomplishes this how?”

Zelda tenses and glances behind her. Paya is squatting in her excavation square, her shoulders hunched up. Zelda bites her lip and feels her face flush with shame.

With a sigh, she says, “You’re right. I shouldn’t have done that. I’ll go apologize to her.”

Purah shakes her head a little, “It isn’t just Paya, you’ve been getting on everyone’s case lately. I know you’ve been working really hard, but life is about balance. If you push too hard on the work front, sometimes it can backfire. It’s creating a bad work environment.” She slides a few papers into a folder and hands it to Zelda, “Go for a walk and clear your head. I need Urbosa to sign these forms for me.”

Zelda takes Purah’s recommendation as the order it is. She hangs her head a little. “Okay.”

It’s a short walk to the main ranger’s offices, but Zelda’s mind wanders. She flips Purah’s words around in her head. Shouldn’t her advisor want her to work as hard as possible? _Life is about balance_. What does that really mean? When she has ambitions for so much, what is a balanced life? She’s just a junior scholar, she can’t afford to slip up.

She’s still thinking when she enters the main office. At the sight of Urbosa’s door, Zelda feels some of the tension leave her shoulders. Her godmother always had a way of soothing away her worries. Ever since she was a child, she would run to Urbosa when she needed guidance. Maybe she could help Zelda untangle whatever it is that she’s been wrestling with lately.

She knocks on the door and waits for Urbosa’s cue before she enters.

“Zelda!” Urbosa exclaims, “What are you doing here?”

Zelda can’t help but smile at her godmother. “Purah had some forms she needed you to sign.” She slides the folder onto the table and takes a seat in the chair in front of Urbosa’s desk.

Urbosa gives her a questioning look, “She usually walks this stuff over at the end of the day.”

“Yes well…” Zelda looks away, embarrassed, “I um…got a little testy with one of the undergraduate students and Purah told me to take a hike.”

“Ah.” Urbosa takes the folder and flips through it. “Is something wrong?”

Zelda watches as Urbosa plucks a pen from her desk and signs the forms.

“I don’t know,” she admits, “I’ve just…been short tempered lately. I’m probably just stressed because the season is ending soon.”

Urbosa hums a little but doesn’t say anything else. She spends a few moments reading some of Purah’s notes carefully. At length, she looks up at Zelda and studies her. Zelda fights back the urge to fidget. It feels like Urbosa is looking deeply into her and it makes her anxious. She knows she probably looks a mess; she’s dirty from a day on site and she hasn’t been sleeping well.

“What happened with you and Link?” Urbosa asks with false nonchalance as she turns back to the paperwork.

At his name, Zelda feels a pang in her chest. Clenching her fists, she mutters, “Nothing. It just didn’t work out.”

“Why not? The two of you seemed pretty cozy a couple weeks ago.”

Zelda studies the table in front of her, but she can feel Urbosa’s sharp gaze assessing her, so she picks her words slowly. “It just didn’t work. Couldn’t work.” She rubs her fingers together, “We’re too different. We want different things out of life! And besides, I’ve got work to do.”

Urbosa sighs. “Zelda, you were happier at the bonfire than you’ve been in years. Why would you want to give up on that?”

“I’m a scientist, Urbosa! I’ve worked too hard to get distracted by the first cute guy to smile at me.”

“But he’s not though.” Urbosa points out, “You’ve had men in the past chase after you and you never gave them the time of day.”

“I should have kept it that way. Everything is easier like that.”

“Little bird,” Urbosa’s voice is gentle and Zelda has a sudden urge to cry, “the shock of a voltfruit rewards only those who are brave enough to taste it.”

Zelda refuses to look up at Urbosa, brow furrowed, still wringing her hands. “I don’t want voltfruit. I want my PhD. I want to lead my own excavations. I want to be published in the Journal of Sheikah Studies. I want to head a research team!”

“Why can’t you do all that _and_ be with him?”

She jerks her head up to look at Urbosa incredulously. “Because!”

“Because what?’

“Because,” she hesitates, scrambling a bit, “because that’s what it takes! That’s what it’s like for women in the field. Purah was the youngest woman to chair the department at Hyrule University and she did that because she didn’t let anyone distract her.”

Urbosa leans forward, resting her forearms on the table in front of her. “But does it have to be that way?”

 _Does it?_ Zelda thinks about it. Being like Purah has always been Zelda’s goal. She chairs the most prestigious department in the country, leads three excavations in two different countries, publishes at least once a year in a high impact journal. She knows better than anyone the sacrifice that Purah has put in to get to her position. But…didn’t Purah also tell her that balance is important too? Hypothetically, it’s possible to achieve great things within the field while dating. People do it all the time! Is she the one that’s making it more difficult than it needs to be?

“Zelda,” Urbosa’s warm tones interrupt her racing thoughts, “I’m not saying you have to give up your goals. I’m just saying you can have many.”

“But I don’t want to be that girl. I don’t want to lose my head over a few sweet gestures from a man I’ve only known for a month.”

“Then don’t.” Urbosa’s answer is shockingly simple. “Keep your head. Keep your goals. But be open to blessings when they come.”

Zelda rolls these words over in her mind. “I don’t know how to quantify a blessing.”

Urbosa huffs a little laugh and says, “Does he feel like a blessing?”

Zelda pauses and thinks about the last month. Thinks his playful teasing as he taught her how to spark flint. Thinks about his patient smile as he guided lost visitors. Thinks about the gentle strength of his arms as he held her and the soft brush of his lips against hers. Maybe it’s not quantifiable, but he certainly feels like a blessing.

“Yes.” The word slip out softly. “But Urbosa, I think I ruined it. I said some things that I didn’t mean. And I didn’t how to—”

“Maybe you should talk to him.” Urbosa’s eyes are kind and understanding. “He has been miserable these last two weeks.”

Something that feels like hope flutters lightly in her chest. “What would I even say? I’ve been unfair.”

“Be honest. Be vulnerable.” Urbosa takes one of her hands between hers. “Just be yourself.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on Tumblr again! [I'm BhujerbanWrites. ](https://bhujerbanwrites.tumblr.com/)Come say hi, submit fic requests, read about WIPs?


	8. Chapter 8

On Saturday, Zelda wakes up with a plan. Not just for Link, but for everything. She’s been so wrapped up in her own head for so long that she can’t stop getting in her own way. It’s time to fix things. It was cathartic to release the tension and stresses that she didn’t even realize she was holding on to.

She starts by approaching Paya at breakfast. Paya is seated by the window, with a slice of toast with jam and a mug of tea, looking at people walking around outside. When Zelda slides into the seat in front of her, Paya startles.

“Z-Zelda.” Paya doesn’t quite look her in the eye.

“Paya, I’m sorry.” Zelda says without preamble. “I wanted to apologize for the way I spoke to you yesterday.”

Paya’s brown eyes flit back to her in surprise. “Oh. No, I d-deserved it. I made a big m-mistake.”

“No,” Zelda says firmly, “it was an honest mistake that anybody could have made, and I should not have reacted in that way. I’m sorry”

“Oh.” Paya looks down at her toast, “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay.” Zelda says, “You should not let anybody talk to you like that, no matter who they are.”

Paya glances back up at her and Zelda holds her gaze and says, “We ladies have to stick together, not tear each other down.”

Paya blushes, but a small smile forms on her face. “Th-thank you.”

“Thank _you_ , Paya.” Zelda reaches across the table and pats her hand. “I’m so proud of you. You’ve done a great job this season and I hope that you got something out of your experience here.”

With that, Zelda stands up to leave. Before she does, Paya speaks again.

“I d-did and…” Paya’s eyes flick up at Zelda and then away, “I j-just want you to know that I think you’re r-really amazing and I look up to you a lot as a w-woman r-researcher.”

Zelda feels a warmth suffuse her body at Paya’s words. In her quest to accomplish the giant goals she set for herself, she’s forgotten what drives her to science in the first place. She gives Paya a genuine smile. “That means a lot.” she says.

The next part of her plan is to figure out how to make things right with Link. She knows that she hurt him by ending things the way she did. He didn’t do a single thing wrong and didn’t deserve to bear the brunt of her inability to maintain balance in life. He deserves somebody who can be good to him and good to themselves at the same time. If she wants him back, she has to show him that she can do it.

That is…if he wants her back at all. The thought gives her pause. What if this time apart hasn’t affected him in the same way it’s affected her? What if he’s moved on and doesn’t want anything to do with a high strung, opinionated, and extremely stubborn person like her?

She pushes the doubts aside. She has to do this, even if he might not want to be with her in the end. She has to try, not just for him, but for herself too. Because she’s never felt a connection like this before and she doesn’t want to let it slip through her fingers without at least trying to hold on.

She pulls out her agenda and lays down her rules. If she wants both the flourishing academic career _and_ the potential man of her dreams, she has to make a plan for it. If she works extra efficiently during the work week, she should be able to leave her work in the lab and have the weekends to herself. She has to set boundaries so that she can distinguish between her work life and her home life. She can have both!

She scribbles pages and pages of notes and plans into her journal. It feels productive to get all of the thoughts swirling around in her head down on paper. At the end of it, she’s satisfied that she has a plan of action. But she realizes that she’s missed a key component. She hasn’t talked to Link.

She lets out a shaky breath and pulls out her phone. She looks at the last message from him, the one she never responded to, and thinks about what to say. Eventually, she settles on a simple, ‘ _Hi, are you free tomorrow? Can we meet up for a bit and talk?_ ’

When she hits send, her stomach is a mess of twisting nerves. She moves to put her phone down, but his response is quick and a punch to the gut.

_‘Busy tomorrow. On shift.’_

She frowns at her phone. When they were seeing each other, Link usually had the weekends off, she wonders what’s changed.

 _‘Monday after I’m done at the site?’_ she texts.

 _‘Working.’_ Is the short response.

_‘Tuesday?’_

_‘Working.’_

She puts down her phone in frustration. He doesn’t seem to want to talk after all. Maybe he has moved on. The thought stings. But after a few moments, her phone buzzes.

 _‘I can do Wednesday.’_ The text from him reads.

Her heart stutters as she texts back, _‘Okay. I’ll meet you at the mess hall?_ ’

His response is a short ‘ _Ok_ ,’ and she wonders what he’s thinking.

But she doesn’t let herself ponder because she has to plan for the meeting. She needs to show him how much she cares. She pulls out her tablet and begins to research the best hikes in the park. She wants something with a beautiful sunset view, she needs the atmosphere to be just right. She makes a checklist of snacks that she’ll bring. The ones she knows he likes. It’s comforting to throw herself into work and she’s able to ignore her own nervousness.

The next few days pass quickly. Since it’s the last week at the site, they’re no longer spending much time excavating. Most of the crew’s time and efforts and being put into cleaning, documenting, and closing up the site. People are beginning to leave and it’s leaving them low on manpower.

Wednesday rolls around before she realizes. Zelda spends the day on pins and needles, anxious about meeting up with Link again. Unfortunately, right at the end of the day, she gets a call from the local police. They’d made some arrests regarding the Yiga incident from earlier that season and they need her to come down to the station to provide a statement. Apparently, they arrested a man calling himself Master Kohga who has been sending punks to the site and the museum because he claims to have a divine claim to the artefacts being found.

With frustration, she messages Link and explains the situation to him. His response is a bland, ‘ _Ok. I understand_ ,’ and she doesn’t know how to take it.

She knows that she won’t be able to get away from the site on Thursday or Friday, since they will need all hands on deck for the final closing. Saturday would be the last possible day, since they’re clearing out of the dig house on Sunday.

Desperate, she texts, _‘Saturday afternoon? Please, I really want to talk.’_

_‘Ok.’_

Her heart calms a bit at his agreement, but she still wishes she knew what he’s thinking. _‘Can we meet at 4?’_

_‘Ok.’_

She stares at his last message for a while, as if willing it to transmit more meaning into her brain. But nothing happens, so she puts her phone away and drives to the police station to give her statement.

By Saturday, nearly everything is neatly wrapped up. Most of the students have left, the site is closed for the season, and the finds have been packed and shelved at the museum. There’s really only one thing left for Zelda to do. She takes her time getting ready, plaiting her hair away and putting on the blue shirt that she knows brings out her eyes. She packs away the near mountain of snacks that she has prepared and double checks the route for the hike she wants to take.

When she pulls up behind Link’s cabin in the late afternoon, the sky is looking a little grey. She ignores it because she’d checked three different weather reports and they all say that it will clear up later on. She sits in her car for a moment and just breathes. Her heart is hammering in her chest because she wants so badly for this afternoon to go well. She’s in the middle of visualizing knocking on the door and practicing what she wants to say when she sees him come around the corner.

They both freeze as they make eye contact. He looks…tired. He has dark smudges under his eyes like he hasn’t been sleeping well. His hair is tied back and he has a small backpack slung over his shoulder. She notices that he’s wearing that nice green shirt that he wore on their first date and wonders if he did that on purpose.

Hastily, she opens her car door and stands. He’s still frozen in his spot.

“Um…do you want to hop in? I have a place I wanted to go and I thought we could talk there.” She hates how awkward and tentative she sounds.

Her words seem to jolt him back to action and he nods. She slips back into her seat and he makes his way over to her car. He slides into the passenger seat and nods at her.

“Hey.” he says softly.

“Hi.” she responds, her eyes flicking over to him briefly before she starts her ignition.

She focuses on pulling out of the parking lot and onto the main road, acutely aware of him watching her. He doesn’t say anything.

“So there’s this hike that I wanted to do and today is kind of my last chance to do it because we’re leaving for Castletown tomorrow and like I know that it’s only forty-five minutes away but the field season is ending and I just wanted to do this hike before it was all over and I thought that it might be nice for us to talk while we do that.” She’s aware that she’s rambling to fill the awkward silence, but she can’t help it.

“Ah, so you’re leaving tomorrow?”

“Yes, the last of the students is leaving tonight and it’s just me, Purah, and Symin locking up the dig house tomorrow before we head out.”

“Hmm.” Is his enigmatic response.

They drive in relative silence for another moment before she can’t stand it. “So this was a really good season!” She’s chattering again, “We were able to get nearly a meter down on one of the oldest trenches and we were able to match the layers with data from previous excavations.”

She spends the rest of the drive talking about the field season, even though she is painfully aware that he is not here to listen to her ramble about that. He doesn’t interrupt her though, so she just continues on.

As they pull into the parking lot for the trailhead, she realized with dismay that it is extremely full. She supposes that she could have anticipated this, since this is one of the top ranked hikes at the park and it is a Saturday afternoon. She holds in her frustration, it’s alright, they’ve still got time. She manages to pull into a spot as a family is leaving.

They get out of the car and she grabs her packed hiking bag from her trunk. The sky actually looks worse than it did earlier.

“Zelda,” Link’s voice is concerned. “The sky—”

“It’ll clear up,” she declares stubbornly, “the weather report said so.”

He raises an eyebrow like he doesn’t believe her but nods anyway. He gestures for her to lead the way and so she does.

They set off along the trail and they encounter a lot of people coming back, clearly nervous about the prospect of rain. But Zelda checked the weather report so many times! It’s supposed to clear up! She repeats this mantra in her head, even as a light drizzle of rain starts to fall.

After ten minutes of silent walking, Link says. “So what did you want to talk about?”

“Not yet.” She says.

She looks over at him and he looks confused. She searches for something to say. “Anyways, look at these rock formations in the distance. You know, this area used to be full of volcanic activity, that’s why the soil is so lush and vegetation density is so high.”

She can feel him getting even more confused as she babbles on about the geological activity of the region. But she just needs him not to ask about what’s going on until they get to the viewpoint. They’re supposed to watch the sunset together and talk.

They make their way to a steeper portion of the hike that uses larger but slightly loose rocks as steps. The rain has made the already precarious steps slippery, but she’s determined to make it to the end of the hike. She keeps her gaze down to focus on where she’s going.

After making it past a particularly wobbly rock, she turns around to warn Link. The abrupt motion causes her boot to lose its grip on the slick rock, and she topples over, landing hard on her other ankle.

Tears spring to her eyes from the sharp impact.

“Zelda!” Link rushes to her, “Are you alright?”

Right at that moment, as if the Goddesses themselves were mocking her, the sky seems to break open and the steady drizzle becomes an honest to goodness downpour.

She opens her mouth to respond, but no words come out. She bursts into tears of frustration instead.

Link stands, staring at her awkwardly, unsure what to do.

“This was supposed to be _perfect_!” she half yells at him.

He is surprised by her outburst. “What?”

“I—” she hiccups, extremely aware that she isn’t one of those girls who has a pretty crying face, but also unable to stop her tears. “I had this plan where I was going to bring you to the top of the summit and we would talk and I could show you that I’m sorry and that I was wrong and that you’re great and that I miss you and that—” The words pour out of her, interrupted only by another strangled breath.

She swipes uselessly at her tears with the palms of her hands, not daring to look up at him.

“I’m not really good at anything except research,” she says with a sigh. “so I did a lot of research and found what people called the most beautiful view in the park. I wanted to take you up there and show you that you’ve changed the way I appreciate nature. I wanted to tell you that I’m really sorry about what I said and that I regret it.”

Zelda tips her head up, feeling the rain pelt her face. She can feel her hair flattening down against her scalp and the uncomfortable cling of her wet hiking clothes.

“I packed all your favorite snacks. I wanted this to be perfect.” She tugs the bag from her back and slumps over it in her lap. “But everything is soaking wet and ruined and I couldn’t even do this right.”

She looks down at her mud covered boots and takes a shaky breath. “And now I’m crying in the rain and it’s all so stupid and melodramatic.”

A low chuckle pulls her out of her moping. Anxiety and hope cramp together in her chest and her eyes dart up to his face. Link is looking at her hands where they clutch her bag, his own hands twitching at his side. After a beat, he raises his gaze to meet hers. He lowers himself on one knee in front of her, ignoring the squelch of mud as he repositions himself.

He doesn’t say anything, but his eyes search her face. She wonders what he sees there and what he’s looking for.

After a moment, he says. “You really hurt me.”

“I know,” she tries to sit up straighter, “I know and I’m sorry.”

“I’ve never felt this strongly about anyone else before.” He admits.

Her heart is beating a frantic tattoo in her chest. “Me neither,” she says, “I shouldn’t have said what I said. It was my fault that I couldn’t handle it. I thought that what we had was a distraction and that I didn’t have time for that. But I was wrong.

“I’m still learning how to balance my life. I’m learning how to make time for work and make time for myself.” She looks at him, “If you’d let me, I want to learn to make time for you too. We can make time to see each other and see where this goes.”

For some reason, he doesn’t seem happy with this, his brows drawing together in a frown. “It’s not about seeing each other, Zelda.” His voice is tense and controlled. “It’s about the fact that you don’t want to be seen with me.”

She pulls back, “What?”

“Do you think I didn’t notice that you never wanted me around the site? That you never wanted to go anywhere that you might be seen by someone you knew? I might not be as smart as you are, but even I can tell when I’m supposed to be a secret.”

She’s taken aback by his accusation. “No! I didn’t want you coming by the site because it’s so busy and I wouldn’t be able to spend time with you. And we went places all the time! We talked to Urbosa at the bonfire. She’s my godmother and she knew! You weren’t a secret.”

“Oh yeah?” He challenges, “What about the time you were so afraid of being spotted with me that we had to sneak out of your room like we were some teenagers? And what about that time at the museum? We met one of your friends and you introduced me as _Park Ranger Link_!”

He laughs, but the sound is hollow and bitter. “I might just be an idiot Park Ranger, but I still got the message loud and clear.”

She furrows her brows. “Why are you doing that?”

“Doing what?”

“Calling yourself an idiot or saying that you’re not as smart as me.”

“Because it’s true? Because I’m not smart enough for you?”

She looks at him incredulously. “You think that’s why I ended things? Because I didn’t think you were smart enough?”

He shrugs and looks away from her.

“No!” She leans forward to draw his eyes to hers again. “You’re incredible! I know you’re smart. You know this park better than anyone I’ve ever met. You never get lost because you can estimate our location from the position of the sun and the stars alone! You’ve taught me so much in these last few weeks, of course I think you’re smart.”

He frowns and looks like he doesn’t really believe her. Zelda recognizes all the ways her actions had hurt him. She’d never really explained why she acted the way she did and that he interpreted it in a way she hadn’t expected. She’d been so wrapped up in maintaining her own reputation that she didn’t realize how it was making him feel.

“I’m sorry.” she says, “I was never ashamed of being with you. I just…didn’t want to be the girl with a field work boyfriend.”

Link opens his mouth as if to say something, but she raises her hand. “Please let me finish.” He closes his mouth and nods, lips turned down. “I never wanted to meet someone in the field. I always knew it would be a distraction and it was better to stay focused on my work. But I never thought I would meet someone like you. The way you make me feel…like I can let everything go and just be myself. I couldn’t help but want to be around you, no matter what the others might say.”

“What the others might say?” His frown deepens.

“Remember what I said when we had our…argument that night?” she winces at the awkward phrasing but pushes on, “About women in academia?”

He tilts his head as he thinks, “That it’s hard enough without rumors of a summer fling?” His voice darkens at the end.

She grimaces a bit. “Yes.” She bites her lip. “I should have phrased that better. What I was trying to say was that it’s difficult for women to get respect in the field. We have to be great researchers, but also friendly and accommodating but professional at all times.

“I was just worried that if people saw me dating while in the field, they would think that I wasn’t taking my job seriously. But I’m sorry that I didn’t stop to consider how that was making you feel. It was never that you weren’t good enough. I just wanted to make sure that _I_ was good enough. I’m sorry.”

The rain continues to fall around them as Link digests her words. Having spoken her piece, Zelda feels simultaneously relieved and terrified. She’s done everything she could to make things right and now the ball is in his court. She’s not used to feeling this out of control.

He’s not quite looking at her, his gaze placed on something a little over her right shoulder. She stays quiet, giving him time to process his own thoughts. At length, he speaks.

“So where does that leave us?” His voice is quiet and vulnerable.

Hope flutters through her chest, but she tries to tamp it down.

“Well,” She glances down at her fidgeting fingers for a moment before meeting his eyes again. “If you still want me, I’d like to try again and make you as happy as you make me.”

He doesn’t say anything for a moment and she feels the panic build up in her chest. “I mean, I know I haven’t been fair to you and maybe I don’t deserve a second chance, but I—”

He presses his thumb to her lips and she’s reminded of that moment by the fire on the beach. His eyes are warm and soft. Her heart races and, when he removes his thumb, he leans down to kiss her.

She meets him halfway. His lips are cold and wet from the rain, but it doesn’t matter. The kiss is a bit awkward, with them half kneeling on the ground and her bag wedged between them. But he cups her cheeks and kisses her so sweetly that it makes her blood sing. She only pulls away when she runs out of breath.

“Um.” She leans back and all at once realizes that she’s soaking wet. “Maybe we should get out of the rain.”

He laughs lightly. “To be honest, I could feel the rain in the air this morning.” He swings his bag forward and unzips it quickly to pull out two rain ponchos.

“You –what!” she sputters. “You had these the whole time and you let me sit here in the rain?”

“Well,” his returning smile is playful, “to my defense, you didn’t really give me a chance to talk.”

She pouts at him, but that only causes his smile to grow. He pulls the poncho over her head and pops one on himself. It’s a bit of a pointless move, since they’re both soaking wet already, but at least the poncho helps retain a bit of warmth. He helps her up and makes sure that her ankle didn’t sustain any significant damage. When they set off back on the trail, he doesn’t let go.

Everything around them is wet and muddy. Zelda can feel the rain running down the length of the poncho and soaking into her pants. Her ankle twinges a little bit and her clothes are soaked through. But Link has his fingers threaded through hers and so somehow none of the other stuff matters. She feels happier than she has in weeks.

“You know,” she tells him, “I had this whole plan. I’d timed it so that we would arrive at the vista right before sunset. People on the internet say it’s the most beautiful view in the entire park. And I brought all this food that I was going to lay out like you did on the first date. Then I was going to apologize to you. I was going to tell you how wonderful you are and how sorry I am. I was ready to _grovel_! It was supposed to be a big thing!”

“Sounds nice.” he says.

She sighs, “It would have been.”

Link just grins sideway at her and swings their interlaced hands. “For what it’s worth, I think it would have worked.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” He squeezes her hand, his touch warm, comforting, and familiar.

The rain doesn’t let up as they make their way down the trail and Zelda has no intention of letting go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is technically the end of this story, since the last chapter is an epilogue. I'll wrote a longer note at the end, but I just wanted to thank everyone that has been following this story and I especially appreciate all of the commenters!
> 
> As we wrap up here, you can find me on Tumblr, [BhujerbanWrites](https://bhujerbanwrites.tumblr.com/), for updates on my WIPs, submit story requests, see some of my doodles, or just chat!
> 
> ♡ ♡ ♡


	9. Epilogue

“Have a good weekend, see you guys on Monday.” Jerrin says as she wheels her bike out the door.

Symin grunts in acknowledgement and waves his hand over his head without looking up from his monitor.

Zelda waves at Jerrin and checks the time. Four o’clock. It’s just about time for her to pack up too. She types a few last notes into her computer before powering down. As she slides her books into her backpack, she glances out the window. The trees outside are bare and the grass on the ground is brown and dry. It looks like the first snow of the season isn’t too far away. Winter is just around the corner. She briefly wonders if Link would like to take a trip to Hebra over the Midwinter holidays. She did promise to prove him that she is an extremely capable cross-country skier.

There’s a knock on the door. She turns around to see Link standing in the hall. She smiles and waves him in.

“Hey Zel,” He enters the room, twirling his keys on his finger. “ready to go?”

“Yes, just give me a second to put this away.”

As she finishes up at her desk, she hears Link ask Symin how his dissertation defense preparation is going. When she makes her way over to them, she catches the end of their conversation.

“If Robbie and Purah could agree on which figure is better, I would be done.” Symin complains.

Link makes a sympathetic noise and pats him on the shoulder.

Zelda smiles and says, “Symin, they’re not going to fail you because of one figure. Your presentation is great, and you’re going to do great.”

Symin shrugs, “I just want to get it over with.” He looks at the two of them, “Anyways, I’m going to be here for a bit longer, you guys should take off.”

Zelda nods and says, “See you Monday, soon to be Dr. Symin.”

Link takes her bag, slinging it over his shoulder, and she takes his hand. They exit the lab together. Since the semester started, it’s become routine for Link to pick her up from the lab on Fridays. They usually get dinner together and plan their weekend adventures, even if sometimes the adventures are just curling up in bed and binge-watching television. They’re in the middle of a discussion about what they should have for dinner (she wants to get Goron curry takeout, but Link wants to go out to eat somewhere), when Purah’s voice interrupts them.

“Zelda, I’m glad I could catch you before you left.” Purah makes her way towards them.

“Did you need something?” Zelda asks.

“I just had a couple of quick questions about some of the references in the paper.” Purah pulls out her tablet to show her the manuscript that they’re working on together.

Zelda feels Link let go of her hand and shift to stand slightly behind her as she and Purah talk. The discussion takes a few minutes and, at the end of it, Zelda promises to send Purah the list of references first thing on Monday.

Purah nods and says, “Alrighty! Sounds like a plan.” Before she turns to leave, she looks at Link, “Hi Link, it’s good to see you again! People in the lab keep talking about the peanut butter brownies you two brought to the potluck. We know Zelda doesn’t have the patience to bake, so I’ve been meaning to ask you, any chance we’ll see them again?”

Link smiles and says, “Sure! I love peanut butter and chocolate, so I’m always happy to whip up a batch.”

“We could make some this weekend.” Zelda offers, “I’ll bring them in for Monday’s lab meeting.”

“Snip snap, it’s a plan!” Purah declares, “Have a good weekend, you two.”

“See you on Monday!” Zelda says.

By the time they get to Link’s car, he’s convinced her to eat out somewhere. Sliding into the passenger seat, she asks, “So where do you want to eat? It’s getting a little chilly, maybe we could get soup?”

“I had somewhere else in mind.” He tells her.

When they leave the Hyrule University campus, Link doesn’t drive towards the main street of Castletown like Zelda expects, instead, he gets on the freeway. About fifteen minutes into the drive, she realizes that they’re heading back to Central Hyrule National Park. Link is frustratingly tight lipped about his plans, no matter how much she needles him.

He pulls into a small trailhead parking lot and gives her a smile as he parks his car. He pulls a basket from his trunk and she can’t help but grin.

“A picnic?” she asks.

“I’ve got quite a charcuterie board here, an improvement from our first date.” He tells her, “Also, I wanted to prove that people on the internet don’t know everything. I’m going to take you on the _real_ hike with the most beautiful view in the park.” He waggles his eyebrows. “Besides, how else am I supposed to show you how much I dig you?”

She groans at the pun but doesn’t stop smiling. “How long have you held on to that one?”

“I’m dating an archaeologist, you must have known it was coming.”

She laughs and takes his hand in hers. A warm feeling of happiness spreads across her chest and she feels so incredibly lucky and loved. She and Link have definitely grown since their initial whirlwind of a summer romance. Dating during the semester and balancing her life isn’t easy, but it is worth it. _He_ is worth it.

After all, every day is its own adventure with this wild pretty boy of hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END!
> 
> Now that we've reached the official ending of PR&OC, I wanted to thank everyone again for reading! This is the first piece of fiction I have written in five years and it's the only multi-chapter story I've ever actually finished writing, so I'm so grateful that you guys took this journey with me. I'm especially grateful for all the encouraging comments/reviews that you guys have left me and I'm more pumped about writing than I have been in ages!! I've been working on some new things that I'm excited to share soon.
> 
> In this story, I tried to pay homage to a few ZeLink writers that really inspired me to write:  
> \- Link drives a Forester because [CGM](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoYouCeeEmNow/pseuds/CrazygurlMadness) always gives him that last name  
> \- Link's Dueling Peaks forearm scar is a reference to Embyr75's drabble, [Scars](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13403740/15/Ira-Deorum)  
> \- Link’s peanut butter and chocolate brownies are a reference to [The Girl at the Museum](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13857600) by wavebreeze because I drew a lot of inspiration for Park Ranger!Link from Museum Clerk!Link  
> \- I borrowed the line, "Come on an adventure with me" from [socksock’s Displaced!Link](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21128084/chapters/50279321), which is the story that really inspired me to start writing fanfiction again  
> \- Zelda takes two packets of sugar with her tea as inspired by how Zelda takes her tea in [Meriandra’s Rise](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16297874/chapters/38118176)  
> \- The name Utano is a shout out to webcomix, whose work, [Hold Your Destiny](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13590111/chapters/31195179), was one of the first BoTW fics I read.
> 
> Did you guys notice these?
> 
> Anyways, that's an extremely long self indulgent final author's note because I'm gonna miss you guys! Once again, feel free to get in touch via [Tumblr, where I'm Bhujerban writes](https://bhujerbanwrites.tumblr.com/). I've posted some WIP previews and I am currently soliciting opinions on which ZeLink AU I should write next.
> 
> That's all from me! Stay safe out there and hopefully I'll see you guys soon.  
> ♡ ♡ ♡


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